[kdveiten]

After my 1st semester, I still don't feel like I have a handle on anything! Here's my dilemma:
A 45-minute period each day with 9 students whose ages and levels are as follows: a 7th grade Beginner, an 8th grade near beginner, 2 8th graders that are high-intermediates to low-advanced, 2 9th graders who are low-advanced but with no interest in learning, an 11th grade advanced student who performs very low in the regular classrooms, and 2 11th graders who are between high-beginner and low-intermediate.

Help! I've tried grouping, but it's not going very well. How many different curriculums can I be expected to follow all at one time? I'm miserable and feel that I've not gotten anywhere with any of them.

[bread_baker]

Did you talk to your director about this? No director should put a teacher in a situation like this! You should ask the director to take some of the students out.
No novice teacher should be expected to teach so many levels all at one time. You won't be able to do as good a job as you want. It isn't good for the students either.

[tomhume89]

It's going to be fairly hard with such a wide range of abilities. What have you taught/tried to teach them so far?

As a junior high school teacher myself, I've learnt (the hard way!) that sometimes pupils will only respond to games- or what they consider games..

[obama5493]

Quote bread_baker

Did you talk to your director about this? No director should put a teacher in a situation like this! You should ask the director to take some of the students out.
No novice teacher should be expected to teach so many levels all at one time. You won't be able to do as good a job as you want. It isn't good for the students either.

As a junior high school teacher myself, I've learnt that sometimes pupils will only respond to games- or what they consider games..

[kdveiten]

I spoke to my principal, and due to scheduling conflicts and restrictions, I was told that there was nothing they could do to improve my situation.

[bread_baker]

Ask the school to order a set of multi-level ESL books for you. There are some multi-level texts out there.
Also, try to get a book written for teachers with tips on teaching a multi-level ESL class.

[RickyChen]

This is a great link to go to see some useful tips on how to elicit and concept check vocabulary in the classroom: ESLFocus TESOL Training Video Series. Video 1: Eliciting and Concept Checking