Teaching the lower ability students.

1. Meeting the challenges of teaching ‘lower ability’ classes.
Context
My school is situated in a small town in rural area near Betong in Sarawak. The general
standard of living is very low. Literacy levels are poor with approximately 30% of adults not past
primary level. Very little English is spoken.
The school has about 650 pupils and significant to the context of this article, the school operates
a streaming policy i.e. it streams pupils by ability into 3 class levels from Year 1 to Year 6). I am
currently teaching the lower ability classes in Years 2 and 3.
Although I do not intend to discuss the pros and cons of streaming, I feel a brief background
explanation is necessary. There is no doubt that the lower level classes are marked as ‘problem’
classes from Year 1. Last year, along with my mentor and other English teachers, I did some
research interviews and found that this perception seems to held by teachers, parents, and
students themselves, with differing views on the advantages or disadvantages of lumping all the’
problem’ children together. The problems are recognised, but many believe that it is
unavoidable in order to give the more able and motivated students a better chance of success in
our competitive, exam-orientated environment. But there is no doubt that the less able students,
the ones who need considerable attention to develop their learning abilities, to build their
motivation and self-esteem continue to be disadvantaged unless the teacher is willing and able
to adopt different approaches to overcoming the problems of teaching them.
Focus
My article will focus upon my response to meeting the challenges of teaching classes of ‘low
achievers’ (so designated by my school’s streaming policy), amongst which there are children
who exhibit learning difficulties and behavioural problems, but also others who show a desire to
learn.
Process
I will discuss the class I took over in Year 2 at the beginning of 2012 and have now taken into
Year 3. I did so at the encouragement of my mentor who felt the class needed help, partly
because of the particular mix of students, but also because the teacher who had taught them in
Year 1, who was in his first year of teaching and had experienced considerable difficulties in
handling them (in contrast to the Level A class which he also taught).
When I first stepped into the classroom, I was terribly frustrated. It was difficult to get their
attention. Some students were running about, others hiding under the desks, many children
were not only chatting, but shouting and screaming, others looked quiet and bored, some
rested their heads on the table dozing; the behaviour of a few was disgusting as they played
‘sptiball’. Many different behaviours, but with one thing in common – they all ignored me!
I despaired of getting their attention, but eventually I managed it even though I had to physically
fetch children to the front of the class. Setting rules is all very well, but these children had no
concept of rules, did not seem to understand even simple instructions and certainly could not

2. read well enough to be able to follow any written directions. Producing posters with explicit
pictures helped, but of much more use, and also motivational, was getting pupils to act out a
situation, to role play and then getting the others (either in groups or individually) to say the
rules for that particular situation. It took a lot of time and patience, but I had to do this before I
could actually teach.
Although the children had been ‘streamed’ into that class, there was still a great deal of
diversity in behaviour and ability ranging from children who continued to be disruptive, requiring
my individual attention to those who showed a desire to learn. In between, were children who
were basically less able or simply apathetic. And in a sense that is an oversimplification,
because there were disruptive children who also seemed fairly bright and well-behaved children
who nevertheless had learning difficulties
I felt that not only knowing them better as individuals, but also letting them know that I they were
valued was important, so I made a determined effort to quickly learn and use their names (not
easy with 27 new students and two other large classes). It is a small point, but I am certain that
students started to show changes in attitude because of this.
I feel I have moved on quite a way since those early days with them and I think that effective
lesson preparation and using attractive teaching aids so that the children have visual stimulation
has been essential. The latter has been extremely important in teaching phonics where I found
really that I had to start from scratch. Initially I made my own board out of card on which I could
slide letters together to make it easier to teach blending and segmenting. Later I managed to get
hold of a magnetic white board which made it even easier and more fun for the children.
Ensuring that my lessons have a good pace with a mix of activities to keep the children
motivated is very important. For example when getting the students to do games together, such
as blending phonemes, I could see that they showed cooperation and helped each other to get
the answer, but sometimes it did not work so well when the good ones did it alone, leaving the
weaker students out. So then subsequently I tried once again but with each one having to take
turns to do or otherwise lose the game. In this way, my students learn teamwork and praising
both individual and group effort goes a long way towards motivating them.
Speaking activities, especially, need careful forethought and getting students to speak with each
other, is quite ambitious. For one exercise, I started with forming a large circle where the
students took turns to speak, but doing it with the whole class meant that students got bored
waiting their turn and I lost control. So then I tried doing it with smaller groups and it worked
because I could go round monitoring them to track progress. Similarly, mingling activities were
much more effective when I got them to mingle in groups instead of as a whole class.
To get them motivated all the time takes a lot of energy and can be quite exhausting as I like to
move amongst students so that I can create a more dynamic environment. My mentor often
tells me it exhausts him too just watching me, but we both know it is necessary with this class. It
is not possible to relax even for a few seconds. Storytelling has proved very popular and
motivational with the class. I know that rhythm and intonation keeps their attention and
sometimes the students laugh at my funny facial expressions. But it obviously enthuses them
because when it is their turn to do the role play everybody raises their hands wanting to
participate.
Outcomes
I have not overcome all the problems, but seeing the improvements that the children have made
has been rewarding. Every lesson continues to be a challenge; at times it is frustratingly slow
progress. But then, with patience and repetition usually something clicks and we are able to

3. move on a stage. Basically, it is a process of thinking about what worked and what did not,
experimenting with new approaches and perhaps, importantly, keeping a sense of humour.
Sometimes the children’s’ mischievousness has actually been motivating as it has shown that
they have some spirit. My most challenging student has been a little boy who obviously has both
severe behavioural problems and learning difficulties. But this same little boy is also eager to
contribute and shows evident joy when he volunteers an answer which is right – or even sort of
right: as when he replied ‘I go to the toilet’ when asked what he did on Mondays! In an earlier
lesson he demonstrated that any learning difficulties he has have not dampened his wit by
sticking a ‘hen’ flashcard on my back without my realising it, much to the amusement of my
mentor. But in turn I also had occasion to laugh when my mentor, having misplaced his
spectacles, suddenly realised that this same little boy was wearing them and attempting to look
innocent.
In conclusion, I have not discovered any magical solution to teaching my ‘low achiever class’,
rather it is a case of continual experimentation, never losing passion or energy and
remembering that for these children, especially those with learning difficulties even small
achievements are significant. I actually ‘get a kick’ out of teaching my ‘low ability’ children,
seeing the pleasure they get out of making progress, even if in comparison with higher ability
classes they lag behind. I am now looking forward to building up their confidence so that they
can perform on stage for their parents, singing and doing role-play. For them, that would be a
real achievement.
Word count: 1500