[etni] class size problem

From: "cohen.izzy" <cohen.izzy@xxxxxxxxx>
To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2010 22:26:46 +0200
David Graniewitz wrote:
>> The pupils are divided up into 3 groups; English Speakers, a regular
(alef)
group and a weak group (Bet). ... in one of my schools, ... I am teaching a
class of 35 ?alef? pupils whilst the ES class has only 11 pupils ... There
is a similar
situation in my other school where I teach 18  7th grade ES pupils. There
the
alef class has 32 pupils ... have you found a creative solution to [this
problem]?

There is a creative solution.based on the principle of "divide and conquer".
First, some historical background.

My 9th grade algebra teacher did not appreciate the fact that I was doing
tomorrow's homework while she explained some concept for the 3rd time. So
she placed my desk in a corner in the back of the room with an another desk
facing me and told the class that whenever the desk facing me was empty, any
student could go sit in it to obtain private instruction. The resulting
stream of students forced me to do my homework at home.

My 11th grade English teacher was a bit lazy and decided that I could grade
the tests taken by everyone else in the class. We both quickly realized that
there was no point in my taking any test after having graded the same test
that was turned in by each of the 30 or so other students. So I received an
automatic A for effort, the effort required to grade the tests taken by the
other students in my class.

In truth, for me, tutoring algebra to my classmates and grading English
tests were both "educational experiences". I think these concepts can be
combined to solve your problem.

In the class with an 11 ES to 35 alef ratio, assign one ES student to grade
tests, assign 4 alef students to each of the 5 best ES students, and assign
3 alef students to each of the 5 next best ES students. Spend some of the ES
students' class time teaching them how to be EFL instructors and base part
of their grade on the extent to which the grades of each of their 3 or 4
alef students improves.

In the class with an 18 ES to 32 alef ratio, assign two ES students to grade
tests and perform administrative tasks, assign 2 alef students to each of
the remaining 16 ES students, and implement the same ideas described in the
previous paragraph.

Of course, whatever you do, don't get fired for dereliction of duty.

Ciao, Izzy

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[etni] class size problem

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