My current school uses mixed ability groups so the scenarios below are from previous years in teaching groups largely set by ability but I thought this might give some hope to those teachers that are struggling.
8×6 – Year 8 Set 6
I had battled with this class up until Christmas and January needed something new, something different to avoid seven months more of students not learning as much as they could. This class was extremely boy heavy and whilst more recently books such as “Boys don’t try” have advocated avoiding competition, we leaned into it. Bill Rogers “Cracking the Hard Class” played a major part in this one and much of what follows is based on the advice found therein.
My classroom at this point was set up with square tables much like a primary school with four students to a table. The overly rectangular shape of the room suited it and lent itself to this. Rows ended up very long and a horseshoe wasn’t possible with student lockers and cupboards etc. This did however mean that whiteboards and rubbers could be left in a tray in the middle of the desk and all that needed to be given out was pens.
Students were in teams of four. Students had a say in the teams. They could nominate one person they thought they would work well with and 2 people they would rather avoid. This meant that certain combinations did not end up together. Ultimately, I didn’t satisfy everyone but the buy-in increased slightly. The rules and what they could score points for was clearly explained.
Our teams were Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Panama. Points were awarded for completion of work, good work, using the target language in class, positive behaviours such as helping others and completion of homeworks. I occasionally had a TA in this group and they were allowed to award points too. Points were counted in two places a small whiteboard on the wall (which normally held learning objectives) and on a mini-whiteboard when I was mobile so they didn’t get forgotten. We would finish lessons ever so slightly earlier to give time to add up the points for each team. These would be displayed on a PowerPoint slide before students left the room, as well as at the start of lessons. As I taught this class Friday period 6 then this was declared the double points lesson. This meant that friday period 6 was actually quite a nice end to the week. At the end of each half-term we rewarded the top two teams and reset the scores to zero. Certain behaviours would mean points being wiped off. We limited this to rudeness and anything you might deem physically aggressive. The school policy remained in place for other infractions.
The mix of positive reinforcement, short term rewards combined with the team accountability that grew turned this class around. The TA and I actually ended up quite enjoying this class and were both disappointed when they got restructured for Year 9.
8×5 – Year 8 Set 5
I hesitate to include this one but I’m going to and the reasons will become clear later on. This class looked great on paper. There was only 12 of them. How difficult could it be? Our first lesson went actually well, expectations were set, books were neat and students did what they were asked. I went home thinking “job well done lad.” Then came the second lesson. One student decides to run over the tables throwing various items at other students. Another hides under the table refusing to come out. One claims they don’t have a pen. The pen magically appeared flying through the air towards me when i asked them to leave after they had delivered a number of x-rated outbursts at other students. Three others refused to work as they didn’t believe there was anything wrong with the verbal outbursts from the other one. One walked out because they didn’t want to do the work “it was too hard” and that was just copying the date and title. Their book showed they did it perfectly the previous lesson. Another walked out because I asked them to open their book and make a start.
I said the reasons for including this would become clear later on. Being completely honest, I don’t think I ever fully turned around this class but some of their lessons did get better. There is a model of bringing change to organisations that i think works with classrooms and is relevant here. I have paraphrased it below:
- Stage 1: “Early Adopters” – Approx 10-20% of a group – Some people will just join in straight from the off. They will go with you.
- Stage 2: “Ok, i’ll join” – Approx 20-30% of a group – Some people will join with you after a short while when they have had time to size you up.
- Stage 3: “Don’t want to get left behind” – Approx 40-50% of a group – Some people will realise the tide is turning and join you.
- Stage 4: “Critical mass” – Approx 55-70% of a group – At this point more people are with you than against you. Some people will not join you as they have decided they don’t like you, or your ideas.
It was clear with this class that we needed to get to critical mass. Here are some of the steps we took:
- Removing 1 key player from the group and moving them to another group with a teacher they had had the previous year. They were more comfortable with her.
- Getting SEN department involved to assist students under their remit. One was extracted for extra literacy as with a reading age equivalent to that of approximately 5 years old, accessing Spanish was extremely hard.
- Getting our behaviour specialist to work with another key player or two. One particularly tricky student was removed for a period of 2 weeks while they worked with him. They then accompanied him to his next two lessons as a means of re-integrating him. The three of us had a conversation prior to his return. It allowed the class to settle a bit and then we carried on. The other we met with in a PPA to try and sort out some of the issues they were having. They highlighted some issues that we could deal with. There was a mixture of the content and the nature of the group.
- Having a talk with one of the more challenging students outside the room that went something along the lines of “I’m never going to stop believing that you can do well in my lessons”. After that chat, I had to live up to this every single lesson. Some lessons they did well, some they didn’t but there was a definite increase where we had more good days than bad.
- Once it was realised that this group were an issue, someone from SLT would drop in occasionally to see how the class were working and positively reinforce any good behaviours. Simultaneously, they would also look out for, and be quicker to any calls made to remove pupils. It took time and following rules and policies for at least a term or two to get to this point. Once the data of the time out room started showing that these students were an issue across the school and that MFL was over-represented in its two lessons a week (compared to the subejcts with one lesson) then the question became “what needs to happen for the students in that room to be successful?” rather than “what on earth is happening to the students in that room and why aren’t they being successful?”
- Talking to their tutors and asking what information they had beyond the stuff that was available from SEN that could help me understand them or use to build a better relationship with them.
- Having a starter task on paper, on the desk on arrival and making sure it could not be failed. It could be argued this was a massive lowering of expectations and to an extent it was. Once we had good behaviour and a good start to the lesson, we could get on with the learning.
- Listening activities were largely done by me rather than the recordings. It was about giving the students confidence. Some struggled with processing so I would take the transcripts and slow them down or amend the language in them slightly, removing distractors and increasing the cognates.
- Battleships and other games became a common feature of lessons and were always done with a model first so that students could “defeat Sir” and practise the language before doing it with their partners.
- Writing was very much “write a short bit from memory to answer this question and then look up something to add.” Students had vocab lists. I had stamps where I could praise or give simple feedback. Stamp stacks from this supplier worked quite well.
- We made regular use of the computer room (some ideas here) and used a variety of sites such as Languages Online, Language Gym (which was in its infancy at the time) and Linguascope.
- We sought support from parents via phone-calls and posted occasional reward postcards home. Some parents were more supportive than others but again it helped in reaching that critical mass.
- One teacher who was on a PPA would occasionally come and do their work in the classroom and help out here and there. They didn’t have to, they realised it was a battle and just wanted to help out.
I did wonder about posting the above and indeed writing this whole post as it doesn’t make me look like the world’s greatest teacher. I was my own worst critic in that I would go home thinking: “you’ve done this for 7-8 years now, how is this group of 10 giving you such a hard time.” I didn’t realise at the time but I wasn’t alone; other teachers struggled with these students but the timetable didn’t put all 10 together in one room apart from in MFL and ICT!
If you are that teacher going through that class at the moment or looking at taking on a new class that makes you think “aaaaaaahhhh” then know that there are steps you can take. Don’t be afraid to talk to line managers, SENCOs, pastoral staff and SLT. If things are really really bad, then there is support out there: https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/ is one such source. Union reps can also help. I would also recommend subject Facebook groups. You can post anonymously if you are just out of ideas and don’t want to be identified.
If you love teaching, love your subject, are passionate about your pupils and want them to do well then don’t let that one class change that.
9x Something – We’re not doing this next year
This next one is an amalgamation of a couple of classes. What do you do when they are not taking it next year?
Class 1 had very much decided this from about September 3rd. I used the setup from 8×6 above, as it had worked well the previous year and went for it. The group contained mostly different kids and in the end, a few were convinced to take Spanish.
Class 2 were a re-structured group post-option confirmation. They had had the options lesson and even despite our best efforts as a department, they had all opted for other things. All those that were studying it were moved into another group: my group. Continuing with the textbook chapter was a non-starter. So we went practical with the idea: If you were dropped in Spain, what would you need? These lessons were all resourced via old textbooks, bbc clips, resources online or lessons from TES.
The rough order was as follows:
Lesson 1: Shop names including this classic
Lesson 2: Directions (how to get to shop)
Lesson 3: Buying things (in the shop you just got to) recap of larger numbers and prices
Lesson 4: Buying ice-cream (if you can ask for ice-creams you can pretty much buy anything)
Lesson 5: Ordering food in restaurants
Lesson 6: Complaining about food
Lesson 7: Hotel vocab
Lesson 8: Checking in and out
Lesson 9: Transport by train/bus
Lesson 10-11: Body parts, illness and injury
Lesson 12: Getting what you need in the chemist
Most students will buy in to the fact that you are teaching them something useful and that in itself can be a big help. Inevitably, there are some who will not but more ideas can be found in this post
Ultimately, my hope in writing this is to give some hope and pathways forward to the teacher who is dreading “that class” tomorrow. If this post achieves that, then it’s worth it. Don’t stay silent and do lean on the support that is out there.
Everyday MFL 