Beth
- 2014-09-24
I've only witnessed real ability gaps when working at summer camps. The schools I have worked for (and work for now) all do rigorous testing prior to placement so the students are all of a very similar ability level. This is mainly because most of the classes I teach will be sitting Cambridge ESOL exams and so they are quite CEFR specific.These kinds of requests typically come for 2 x Primary School age children - say a Grade 2 and a Grade 5, so there is usually a difference in ability in English, just given their school experience. A 7 year old may have seen little more than vocabulary along with some basic structures, while the 10 year old will be working with much more. To be honest, I don't see that as a big problem, given that dealing with mixed ability levels is part and parcel of any group setting.
This is why long term teaching of a very mixed ability group often falls down, as they require different speeds of learning and certainly different styles of tasks to keep them engaged and motivated.
I would perhaps suggest if this is something you will be doing full time, maybe providing two different styles of worksheet to accompany the aim of the lesso; an easier more kid-friendly version for the lower level student and a harder more age appropriate one for the older, higher ability student. The drawback to this of course is double the work for you, I'm afraid!
Although, onestopenglish.com and cambridgeenglish.org both have some great resources that are level specific, so finding two different sets of material for the same grammar point or vocab group isn't as tricky as you'd imagine!
Good luck! 
Veronica
- 2014-09-23
Hi Beth,
Thanks for your comments. These kinds of requests typically come for 2 x Primary School age children - say a Grade 2 and a Grade 5, so there is usually a difference in ability in English, just given their school experience. A 7 year old may have seen little more than vocabulary along with some basic structures, while the 10 year old will be working with much more. To be honest, I don't see that as a big problem, given that dealing with mixed ability levels is part and parcel of any group setting. It's the huge difference in their interests and abilities in general - manual, problem solving, and so on, that I find difficult to manage. What I've seen happen is either the older child becomes bored or irritable with the younger one, or the activities are simply beyond the grasp of the younger one.
That said, mothers manage to entertain their flocks, and I have no doubt there are plenty of teachers who manage it too. I suppose I could too, if I had unlimited time to prepare parallel activities, or an unlimited budget to buy a series of course books (they often have reasonably parallel topics ) - but of course, I don't have either. I try to stay away from course books anyway, since they already get plenty of those at school.
Anyway, thanks again for your ideas - it was great to have someone else's thoughts to mull over. And no doubt I'll keep mulling on it!
Beth
- 2014-09-21
Hi Veronica!
I also teach in Spain, at an academy, but there is still a huge demand locally for private lessons for all ages!
I would say that the age of your students shouldn't be too much of an issue so long as there are no huge gaps, say one of 5 and one of 15! So long as they are of a similar age group, tailoring individual private lessons that are suitable for all 3 is very much doable. The bigger question would be what ability level are they? If there is significant difference between their use and understanding of English, then private lesson may flounder somewhat.
Ability is definitely more of an indicator than age (excluding large age gaps, of course)
Hi, I'm a private professional EFL teacher, in successful full time work in Spain, specialising in school-age children's classes. I'm often surprised at how little I can find on the internet about this - it seems most private teachers rely on adults, and at best only supplement the work they do in a language school. Yet in my city, at least, the private class market is clearly for children. It's great, but I miss having colleagues with whom I can share my ideas and experiences, and discuss my questions and problems. Are there any other teachers out there who feel the same? Are there any websites that I've missed.
While I'm here, then, this is my number one unanswered question: Is it really possible to teach 2-3 siblings of differing ages in a class?? I've had experience in mixed age classes (eg summer camps), and that wasn't a problem .. but whenever I've tried in this private class setting it just doesn't seem to work, at least not in the long term. I'd love to hear from others on this, as it's a recurring request from my clients.
Thanks!