Here is a list of activities as described by students. Study them carefully and write the corresponding role of the teacher for each: 

Conclusion:

Instead of being the dominating authority in the classroom, the teacher should facilitate the communication process among all the learners and between the students and the various tasks by giving guidance and advice when necessary.   

Classroom management 

Here are some aspects of classroom management that are appropriate for large mixed ability classes:   

Space:

Because of the different levels in the class it is difficult to keep the attention of the students: what’s interesting and challenging for one learner is boring and too easy for another. So, while the teacher’s attention is fixed on one side of the class, the other side begins to slip away, switches off, gets increasingly noisy, and the class turns into fragments. So,

• If the desks are easily removable, use the space in a way that encourages students to listen to each other and to enable the maximum number of students to see the board and any visual material the teacher may be holding up.
• If the desks are immovable objects, the same cannot be said for the teacher; the way a teacher moves around the room at different points in the lesson can have a significant effect on students’ concentration.   

Time: (Friend or enemy?)

• Don’t plan to do too much in a lesson. (Have an “extra” such as an anecdote or a joke in reserve rather than cramming the lesson with elaborate activities.)
• Tell students at the start of the lesson roughly what you intend to do and how long they it’s going to take.
• Tell students how long they have for a particular activity.
• Warn the class one or two minutes before an activity is due to finish.
• Use the last few minutes to check that learning has taken place and to summaries what the lesson has been all about.
• Allow students time to copy important information from the board before you rub it all off, particularly at the end of the lesson.
• Don’t wait too long for a student to answer, as this slows the lesson down, and it may be difficult to pick up momentum again.

Checking:

• Cross-checking: This involves checking a response given by one student with that of other students in a different part of the classroom. This is particularly useful where a “good” student stops listening when a “less able” student is speaking.
• The power of the written word: Pair work should involve written answers wherever appropriate, even if only in note form. Because:

It encourages reluctant learners to complete the task

It discourages them from using only the mother tongue as they learn to have a feedback in English.

It gives better students more to do while you go round helping weaker ones.

It gives the teacher something to discuss with early finishers.   

When answers are written, the checking and cross-checking process has a greater chance of success than if students have got nothing to refer to when they dry up.  

Nominating:

Use students’ names (first names where appropriate) when eliciting and checking. Using names makes for better rapport with students, and involves them directly and rapidly when need be. An equal distribution of answers is difficult without systematic - and encouraging – use of students’ names. 

Eye Contact:

Try looking at the class as you are speaking, allowing your gaze to travel gently round the class, without staring inhibitingly at any one student.

Look at the student who is speaking, occasionally let your eyes rest on another student (on the other side of the room) before coming back to the speaking student (experiment with the reverse process and see the probably negative effects of looking up at the ceiling, at the floor, through the window, or at the wall as you are giving instructions or asking questions.)   

Voice:

Vary the loudness and the tone of your voice when the function of what you’re saying changes. Set off from previous discourse by an increase in loudness or pitch.  

The board: 
Use the board to record grammar, vocabulary, and content and point students’ attention to this information when the lesson seems to be going off the rails.

• Use the board as one way of ensuring that instructions are clear.
• Write example sentences of the target structure on the board and remind students before the task and during it that they should be using these structures.
• Use the board to jot down points made by all students (but particularly weak ones) as a discreet way of emphasising the value of their contribution and integrating this contribution into the lesson, where appropriate.
• At the end of the lesson make sure students have copied into their notebooks any useful information from the board, and use what’s on the board to remind them of the main point of the lesson.