Using open-ended activities in a mixed-ability ESL class
ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers need to use activities that engage as many ESL students as possible for as long as possible. This article provides an overview of activities that can be implemented with fairly large mainstream ELL classes within differentiated instruction.
Why open activities?
In a mixed-ability ESL class, teachers should aim for whole-class participation rather than single-student activations, such as calling a student to the board or having a student write a response on a single piece of paper. who runs through the class. One way that teachers can facilitate this process is to offer a variety of open-ended exercises.
Use of open-ended activities in differentiated instruction
An open-ended activity allows students to work at their own pace and allows for a variety of responses. However, for the purposes of full class participation, teachers should aim for activities that ALL students can do together. During this time, the teacher visually checks the students’ responses, correcting where possible.
This type of interaction gives the teacher more control regarding the management and organization of the classroom. The teacher may use open ended activities during various segments of the lesson, particularly in the first twenty minutes of the lesson where students are learning or reviewing important lexical (core) vocabulary.
Open ideas for the beginning of the lesson.
1. Increase the number of open-ended brainstorming activities (many responses to a teacher prompt)
2. Encourage students to respond together by pointing to things, raising hands or fingers, responding in chorus, moving their bodies, marking items, or writing responses.
For example, if you are teaching colors and body parts, you might have students open their textbook and point to the item (in this case, body part or color) that you mention. If you are reviewing vocabulary using pictures, number the pictures. Then the students have to show the number of fingers according to the picture.
end of course activities
1. Students can recap what Lexi learned during the lesson using the sequence of pictures and numbers (mentioned above) or simply by pointing to the pictures in her textbook.
2. Dictation. Students can write a single letter or even nonsense words. Intermediate students can write the word and more advanced students can write the sentence or sentence.
3. Command games: simply telling students to do things or Simon Says.
4. Quick Guessing Games – Based on a sketch on the blackboard.
5. Brainstorm: How many things can students think of that… start with a certain letter, have a certain letter, are animals, are colors, are in this room, or whatever they want? Give them an ambitious but achievable goal, like getting to 10/20/30 words, and try to reach it. o:…we have 3 minutes of lesson left, let’s see how many words we can come up with.
last words
It is crucial that both the teacher and the students understand that students will progress at different rates. The emphasis on engaging the whole class through open-ended activities requires effort. Students must understand that they are working at the level that will take them one step further. This is the heart of the principles of differentiated instruction.