Differences in Student Preparation

I have been thinking a lot about how I would handle having to teach a classroom of students with vastly different levels of preparation (which is something I almost assuredly will have to face some day). In my career as a student, I’ve had the fortune of having some excellent teachers who were able to effectively engage most of the students. I recognize that the following strategies would not necessarily work for all subjects (I have an English classroom in mind when thinking of these strategies) and that conceiving and actually implementing strategies are two entirely different things. That being said, I would:

1. Let the students learn from each other (i.e., directed and closely supervised group work—although I would never assign “group grades,” which is another topic entirely). Some of my most rewarding experiences in the classroom have been peer interactions—helping other students to understand something very often clarifies and deepens the “teacher’s” understanding. If it runs smoothly, this approach involves everyone at whatever level of understanding they may have. Although this would probably fall apart, or at least not be as beneficial, the wider the gap was between students.

2. Ground the class in student based discussion rather than lecture (once again, easier in some subjects and classrooms than others). This seems obvious, but once again it allows students to engage with the material on various levels (maybe some of the “lower” students contribute more obvious ideas while what the more advanced students contribute goes beyond the others, but still at least the majority of students are not excluded from the activity because of how little or how much they understand. To be successful, this would most likely require some careful guiding of the conversation.

3. Design homework, worksheets, tests that ask open questions. Students can analyze a piece of literature with varying levels of insight and complexity, but I would try to make sure no assignments were so simplistic that they failed to seem worthwhile to the advanced students but I would try to ensure that they remained accessible to at least the majority of the other students. Again, pretty obvious.

I guess that these “strategies,” if you can even call them that, avoid the real issue and make more sense in a classroom where the differences between students are a reality but not as dramatic as they often are. What seems to be popular is to “teach to the top,” and I agree. I think that doing so doesn’t necessarily mean you lose the other students, but teaching to the bottom almost always means that you lose the top students. I think I would try a two-pronged attack—teaching to the top, with room for students to engage with a text or assignment with varying degrees of complexity, while also trying to lay the groundwork for the students who are far behind. On some regular schedule, I would assign fundamental work (grammar, literary terms, etc.) and as students finished, they would move on to another activity (a discussion or reflection?), allowing me to spend time with students who needed more individualized instruction. I also plan to spend a substantial amount of time correcting and editing papers. While lessons about strategies to approach/organize/write papers are helpful, what I’ve found most helpful is actually digesting individualized constructive criticism (I would probably assign short reflections on the essays they’ve written to try to encourage them to pay close attention to my suggestions). I would hold writing conferences with students, probably once in class and then optional ones after school, allowing for at least some differentiated instruction. I would also direct students to whatever resources were present in the school (for example, at my high school, students from the National Honor Society were responsible for making sure that there were two tutors in the library two days a week—a resource that was sadly underused). If no resources were available, I would try to implement some. Maybe a writers club? A book club?—I don’t know how successful these would be, but I’d try anything to get kids involved and excited about the subject matter. With these ideas in place, I recognize that I would need significant time in the classroom to test what actually works. I think that what is most important is to recognize the challenge that such a classroom would present but to never give up on any student or group of students.