It's such a good thing to think outside the box, and to find solutions that work for your program!
		 
		We too had to seek a non-traditional solution for mixed-level students (significant variance between reading/writing and listening/speaking skills).  In our case, the variance was dramatic: world English speakers, who were not literate, and academics from other countries with high English literacy skills but no confidence in conversation. 

Our solution was to divide the classroom time into Listening, Reading/Writing, and "Homeroom" classes. In Homeroom, all skills are integrated, but the major concentration is on oral communication. The students were happy because all their learning needs were being met, and the teachers were happy because they got to teach three different levels during the day. 
 
Extra benefits: 

*	
	Students study with several different teachers, with different accents, speaking speeds and teaching styles
*	
	Teachers regularly meet to evaluate student progress.

		*	
			students have different teachers for Listening, Reading and Homeroom
		*	
			there is articulation between levels and across levels

				*	
					if a level 1 Listening teacher is tackling the subject of money, the subject is reinforced by the Reading and Homeroom teachers.

This model probably works best for at least three classes taking place simultaneously, but it could certainly be adapted for two classes as well.
 
Noa 
 
Noa Sadan
Program Director
Montgomery County Refugee Training Program
Montgomery College
8561 Fenton Street, Suite 210
Silver Spring, MD 20910
240-567-1404

________________________________

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of ERIN MCNALLY
Sent: Mon 12/10/2007 5:33 PM
To: 'The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List'
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 1969] Re: Practical StrategiesforWorkingwithLiteracy-Level Adult English Langua



Just thought I'd share this strategy we've used in our program for mixed
literacy and oral fluency levels:
This class session we started a new class for students who are at a high
beginner/low intermediate speaking proficiency level but who are beginning
writers and readers.  Before, we tried to place them in class level that
fell somewhere between their oral and literacy skill levels, and most of
them ended up leaving our program because they either felt lost during
writing activities or bored during conversational activities.  So far,
almost all the students have stuck with the class and seem to really be
benefiting from it.  I guess this would only work if your program has enough
students who fall into this category to make another class and enough space
to do it, etc., but for us it's definitely been a worthwhile experiment.

Erin McNally
ESOL Program Coordinator
The Boston HERC
68 Northampton St.
Boston, MA 02118
617-606-4273


----------------------------------------------------
National Institute for Literacy
Adult English Language Learners mailing list
EnglishLanguage at nifl.gov
To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/englishlanguage
Email delivered to noa.sadan at montgomerycollege.edu


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 7337 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/englishlanguage/attachments/20071213/0ee9988f/attachment.bin