Tag Archives: mixed-ability

TEACHING BEGINNERS WRITING, differentiation

30.10.2025 Raimo J Leave a comment

Use some pre-tasks to stir the imagination of the students before you ask them to write anything. Photos are excellent in this respect.

Learning a foreign language is usually started with listening and speaking. The words and phrases learnt may be shown as visual stimuli but actual reading and writing takes place a bit later when the students are given a textbook.

Writing in its simpliest form means

writing down or copying words, word lists or short sentences; the teacher shows a picture and the students write the word for it; the teacher says words aloud and the students write them down, etc.
dictation: the teacher reads simple sentences or stories and the students write them down, filling in words in a text with gaps or some missing words in a song
writing down simple sentences either copying them from the book, copying part of the sentence and changing part of it
elaboration: students make sentences or simple stories using some words given to them
free creative writing: the students write a fictive story using or ignoring the prompts given by the teacher

All in all, writing starts from individual words, continues in writing simple sentences which at its best are creative in the sense that they are not copied from the textbook chapters. Learning to write well is a long process and both teachers and students have to be patient until the very end of studies.

At the beginning pupils need a lot of guidance from the teacher but as they get older most students benefit from being allowed to be creative and all they need to get going is a set of titles or pictures to choose from.

Differentiation in mixed-ability classes

However, all teachers know that there is a tremendous variation in writing skills in mixed-ability classes. Let’s have a look at the following example and see how the teacher can differentiate the writing task so that the pupils can work at their own level. They know how past tenses of regular verbs are formed and some 30 irregular past tenses.

The formula of differentiation is simple

Revision is done the previous lesson on vocabulary and the grammatical point we wish to emphasize. The topic has to be based on the chapters that were recently studied.
A couple of oral pre-tasks are done in pairs or groups at the beginning of the writing session as a reminder.
Three (or two) choices how to get started with writing. The only difference is in how much of the guidence provided by the teacher the students are making use of.

For example Title: Last summer Be as creative as you wish.

Pre-tasks: The idea is to force 6th graders to use the past tense in telling what happened last summer. The past tense was practised the previous week but we will do a couple of warm-up exercices as a reminder.

Many students find it hard to get started with writing so we need to stir their imagination a bit with some pre-tasks, A) and B) below.

A) The students change a story on the screen written is the present tense to the past tense. It is an oral exercise done in pairs. The second time the students do the same thing but have to change something in every sentence. (5 min) In other words, the mechanical 1st version is turned to a semi-communicative more creative version.

Jane likes to go shopping on Saturday mornings. She usually goes to town by bus but sometimes she takes her own car if she plans to buy some big things. It is eight o’clock and Jane gets up, brushes her teeth and makes morning coffee. She also drinks some water and eats a banana and two sanwiches …

The story is unfinished here and would need 3 – 4 sentences more. If the students do not know the answers, they need to negotiate between themselves and finally consult another pair or the teacher. Some students get only the 1st reading done, others maybe have 3 different versions.

B) The students get into groups of four and make a mind map on what they could write about. 5 min planning. Something like this, just throwing in ideas that can be used or ignored.

C) Write a true or imaginative story of what happened to you, your friends and/or your family last summer. Choose any of the three options below.

Choice A	Choice B	Choice C (the easiest one)
Feel free to write a creative story. It does not have to be true.	You may use the beginning of the sentences below as part of you story.	1) Answer the questions OR 2) Fill in the story with any ideas that please you. The first letter or two are sometimes given to you. You are welcome to write sentences of your own too.
	Last summer I and my best friend went to … because we … First we … the train to … Secondly, we … After four hours we … because … When we came back late in the evening we … The next week me and my family …. We … there by … and the following morning we … because …	1) What did you do last summer and why? Where did you go and with whom? Pick four places and explain about them. How did you get the money for ? Why did you go there? How did you get there and back? What were the best things you did there? … OR 2) Last summer my family m… a trip to … and we stay… in a ho… for … days. We sw… in the swimming pool for many ho… and at lunch time we we.. very hungry a… like a horse. My mum w… to the nearby village and bo…. herself some new clothes. My dad likes reading so he r… some short stories when we we… swimming. Just before we le… the hotel on the last d…, we pick… up apples and strawberries. They co.. very little. My dad dr… us back home and … A week later we … The best thing last summer was when we … When school started … (Surprisingly many students give up this choice because it is not creative and because the modified cloze text (2) actually requires reading comprehension and a lot of thinking.) In most classes Choices B and C might be enough.

Choice A is for advanced students, B for average ones and C for weaker students. Still, we let them choose any of the options. The more there are sentences and ideas produced by the student him-/herself the better, He/she has to be rewarded with higher marks.

At first glance this kind of differentiation may seem troublesome but if you think about it from the students’ point of view, it shows that you care and try to make writing a more pleasant experience for them. Especially the weak writers need a lot of support and ideas. On the other hand, this way we do not tie the hands of more advanced students.

How does one evaluate stories like this?

This is an interesting question but I like to keep things simple.

Teacher evaluation: In our Finnish system we use grading 4 – 10. 10 is the highest grade and 4 means failure. This is what I tell my students:

Choice A suggests you are heading for Grade 9 or 10.
Choice B implies you wish to get Grade 7 or 8
Choice C basically means you aim at Grade 5 or 6
BUT the evaluation is not that simple since everyone can use the ideas given in Choice B and C. Therefore I simply have to consider the level of creativeness and language in general because someone who makes use of Choice C may well come up with a perfectly original story and deserves a high grade.
On the other hand, someone who chooses Choice A and writes an appaling story does not deserve a high grade.
SO, in the end I am simply using the national criteria in giving the grades but take into account how much the writer leans on the guidance given.

Student/Peer evaluation in writing

Letting the students read each other’s stories and assessing them is a delicate process of its own. In my opinion the students find it very interesting and it is great to have a group of other people who read the story in addition to the teacher. However, note the following points:

Ask the students not to write their names on the papers. The writers draw a symbol on the paper to identify their work later on.
Young students can indicate with some positive symbols how much they liked the story. 1 – 5 stars or roses, etc.
Junior high students (ages 11 -15) can use positive symbols and write only positive comments about the story. If they do not understand something they can put a question mark (?) in the margin.
Some junior high classes might be mature enough to give some constructive feedback also on the challenges or the ways the story could be made better. They might even be able to suggest the grade if they are familiar with the criteria/rubric.
The assessment can also be done in (randomly selected) pairs.
All the feedback is done in class before there are any teacher’s markings on the papers. The teacher moves around the class when the ‘assessment’ is going on because this is a dead-serious business and nobody’s feelings are to be hurt.
Senior high students benefit a lot if they are allowed to assess each other’s stories, essays or any other type of written assignments.
They will 1) get a realistic view on how good writers they are compared with others, 2) They will learn to interpret the criteria better and realize which writing skill elements they need to improve themselves, 3) They will have to think carefully how to apply all the advice given to them by the teacher. 4) They will be more motivated to write the texts since they know someone else than the teacher will be reading them too.

I hope you now realize how different the writing process becomes if it is done at least roughly as I suggest above. To me the benefits are undeniable and in the long run the teacher’s workload is not increased.

Historical perspectives

DIFFERENTIATION

29.10.2025 Raimo J Leave a comment

Differentiation can be defined as all the measures that help individual students to work at the most suitable level at that point. I favour a system that I call ‘invisible optional differentiation’.

N.B. You will find many other examples on differentiation in my other articles all through these web pages. So here we are scratching the surface really.

This article will clarify the concept of ‘differentiation’, give an example of it and provide a historical perspective on it in Finland.

What do I mean by ‘invisible optional differentiation’?

invisible = an outsider who steps into the class does not immediately know who are weak or excellent students since everyone is working in a serious manner at their own pace. I seldom use the term ‘differentiation’ but simply make the students work in pairs or groups and let them choose the tasks.
optional = the students are not forced to do certain exercises but there is a choice, a number of options, so that the students can pick up the tasks they prefer, they can also mostly choose the ones they work with
differentiation = in mixed-ability classes very many activities in class are planned carefully in advance so that even the weakest students find tasks that suit their level and the best ones have tasks that are challenging enough

Let’s take an example: Checking the understanding of a chapter in a textbook. Usually the teachers ask questions and one student answers at a time. How can we make all students work hard at a level that suits them best? Topic of the chapter: ‘Travelling abroad’

If we differentiate and apply CLT principles, we give the students 3 options: A is mechanical (answers can be found in the text), B is semi-communicative since the answers/comments are at least partially based on the text, C is communicative since the ideas are based on the students’ experiences, not on the textbook.

A Work in pairs and answer the questions on the screen (or a handout) B Tell in your own words what the text is about (key words: platform …) C What do you think about travelling on the train compared with travelling by car or by plane?

Does this kind of differentiation cause us extra work as a teacher? Not really since we have always done A and B/C do not need any/much preparation.

Students are not labelled at any point according to their abilities.
Students are given options on what to do in some parts of the lesson and they can choose between tasks that vary in difficulty level.
Students can make progress at their own pace and they choose themselves which of the tasks given they will work on.
The teacher organizes the activities in class but does not tell the students which tasks they must do.
Differentiation can be used to help students in many ways.

– Differentiation using quantity: some students simply do much more exercises than the slow ones during the lesson.
– Differentiation using choice: Everybody is allowed to choose any tasks given which they want during the lesson.
– Differentiation based on learning styles or strategies or learner profile
– Differentiation based on proficiency level and flexible grouping: This is basically the same as streaming used to be: advanced students, average ones and slow learners in their own groups (temporary grouping)
– Differentiation guided by a special teacher having remedial teaching outside regular lessons

A historical view on differentiation in Finland

In the early 1980s when we first started to apply communicative language teaching, CLT, ideas we still had the streaming operating in Finnish language classes. Streaming meant dividing the students into three classes/levels according to their proficiency level and test results. We taught the groups in separate classrooms and even had special textbooks for them.

There is no denying that there was a lot of discussion about the abolition of the streaming system when we gradually introduced a completely new curriculum in the elementary and junior high schools in the 1980s. Teachers had little idea how one could possibly teach mixed-ability groups and it was feared that the level of learning would drop drastically.

Luckily the CLT ideas were the main things that were pushed ahead in our teachers’ in-service training days and we got a fresh start. We were also lucky since the Finnish publishers responded to the challenge by producing excellent and modern textbook materials full of CLT applications. In fact, the transition was rather smooth and it took only a few years and all of Finland was teaching mixed-ability classes with confidence.

As a result, no matter where you lived in Finland the students received the same kind of high quality language teaching. CLT and differentiation principles were a child of democracy entering schools more and more. One of the basic principles in our new curriculum was to try to make sure every single pupil and student had an opportunity to develop their skills in full. It practice it meant not only teaching English well but other skill areas too: social skills, manners and self-control, study skills and technical skills needed in working life.

One of the reasons Finland is so high in PISA results is that our weakest students are the best in the world. We do not give upon them and let them drop out.

We teachers started to take care of every individual and never gave up on them. Special teachers entered the schools to help the ones with serious learning difficulties such as dyslexia and ADHD. We realized that students learn differently, in their own style, and that we have to allow this happening in class too. We learnt to give positive, constructive feedback to enhance students’ self-confidence and motivation. And we learnt to evaluate the students not only on the basis of the course exams but took class participation and other factors into account.

When I graduated from senior high school in 1973 my final English examination was simple: translation from English into Finnish and from Finnish into English. Nothing else was tested. The evaluation was harsh: 2, 4, 6 and 9 point mistakes and some of my friends got minus 4, – 4?, as their grade out of 10 for the whole exam. How can someone’s knowledge of English be worth minus something? Luckily things have changed completely from those days.

Well now we English teachers are testing our students in reading, writing, listening, grammar, vocabulary and even speaking and differentiation is taken into acoount even in exams. What a dramatic change! I have described and discussed this change in the articles on the front page under heading ‘ The structure of an ideal text-based lesson’.

In my experience having three options in differentiation is quite sufficient in any skill area.

In the old streaming system we divided students into three proficiency levels and in CLT tasks dividing the tasks is most typically done in three categories too: mechanical, semi-communicative and communicative.

It is worth pointing out that differentiation can be efficiently done only in student-centered teaching, in classes where the teacher fascilitates and organizes the learning situations. All my articles on these web pages actually are part of this story even if there have been several massive changes in teaching since the late 1980s.

In my next articles I will clarify my principles and practical applications in differentiation and scaffolding, introduce four learner profiles and finally consider when differentiation is feasible and sensible in class and when it is not. These ideas have made me change many practices in my class.

Differentiation	Differentiation, how to apply the ideas
	Four types of learners, implications
	Differentiation in text-based lessons
	N.B. See also other articles