I think I have found a good approach to the problem of mixed  levels.  We 
have a tutor-style set-up, with three teachers teaching groups  of 2-3 at roughly 
the same level, while the remaining students practice  with online resources 
for English learners (mainly Rosetta Stone,  which our library system supplies 
us with, and Pumarosa, specifically for  Spanish speakers) with one teacher 
to supervise. Half way through the  session, we switch (our total teaching time 
is three and a half hours, once a  week.)  The tutors, this being a church 
run program, are all volunteers (I  personally have taught for forty years and 
am now retired.)  What we  emphasize, above all, is that students are 
responsible for their own learning,  and we provide the resources they need, and help 
them to develop study skills,  such as the use of dictionaries, learning logs, 
flash cards, word posters,  journals, and peer contact and communication.  
They keep their own  dictionary of words they have learned (using a small memo 
book that they can  carry around with them and review repeatedly - then use 
those words in sentences  at the next class.)  We also give them a magnetic memo 
pad to put on their  refrigerator or whatever, to keep the words in front of 
them all week.
Tutoring small groups can give students maximum speaking and listening  
practice, communicating with each other and learning cooperatively, with minimum  
interruption by the tutor, asking questions, writing and  reading dialogs, role 
playing telephone calls, doing missing information  activities and so on.  
They can also interact by communicating with other  students, discussing 
problems they have, either language or civics  based.  If they happen to have 
children, we guide them to the many  resources and parenting skills literature that 
are available.   They talk about their concerns and share their stories with 
each  other.  (This can also be done by fewer teachers, grouping students with  
appropriate material, and circulating between groups to keep them on  track.)
We have a Word Wall in the classroom, Present and Past Tenses of Irregular  
Verbs, and a Topic of the Week, which contains short articles, charts etc. (for 
 example, the FOOD topic includes the old and revised Food Pyramids, a list  
of Foods you Should Eat, and Foods you Should Never Eat, a Calorie Chart, and 
Vitamin Guide.  The students can be given a 'Find the Information'  handout, 
which they can do cooperatively with other students.  We try to  use authentic 
materials as much as possible, with picture dictionaries as our  only text.
One of the chief barriers to learning the language is lack of day-to-day  
exposure to it, which for the cleaners, construction workers, custodians,  
housekeepers etc. of the immigrant world who neither hear or speak it  consistently, 
is a major problem.  With this in mind, we have acquired  a number of 
inexpensive MP3 players (off eBay) and downloaded material from the  web, including 
VOA Special English 'Stories of Words', so that the students have  something to 
listen to, other than music, while they work.  These podcasts  have printouts 
of the audio, and introduce students to a lot  of different and useful 
idiomatic expressions. 
In addition, we have located a charity that supplies low-income families  
with refurbished computers, and discussed information about low-cost dial-up  
internet service.
We have available for borrowing a number of videotapes, especially  those 
with songs, and clear speech, that are more appropriate than TV for  
familiarizing them with spoken (and sung) English, and recommend recorded books  and other 
resources available from libraries.
Each week we send students home with a short book, downloaded from the  
website Reading A-Z (If they are Latino, as most are, they can also take the  same 
material in Spanish)  Although this site is for children, many of the  
non-fiction books have interesting  subject matter and expressions that are  useful, 
if selected carefully, with adult readers in mind.  I may also,  from time to 
time, give them a rhyming couplet, haiku, or proverb, to memorize  and talk 
about the following week.
Above all, we get to know our students' needs, with competency tests, needs  
assessments, study skills surveys, background information - whatever  helps us 
to help them.  Ideally, the tutors make weekly notes about the  students.  At 
the end of the class, the students fill out a What I Learned  this Week form.
We keep a portfolio on each student, so that any tutor can see at a glance  
where the student is.  Is the student going to citizenship classes, taking  a 
drivers' test, trying to communicate with a landlord, looking for a job or an  
apartment?  What is on their minds?
Hope some of this is useful to somebody somewhere......
Julie Combes
 



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