How to organize an open class where "joining is possible at any time"

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ESL forum > Techniques and methods in Language Teaching > How to organize an open class where "joining is possible at any time"

How to organize an open class where "joining is possible at any time"

LittleSunshine11

How to organize an open class where "joining is possible at any time"

Dear friends,

I hope you can help me again Smile

The head of department at the language institute where I teach wants to offer a "false beginner" class soon, I have taught these kinds of classes numerous times and am always looking forward to the challenge. BUT... the class is supposed to be "open" that means new students are allowed to join at any time, even after the class has started.

I don �t know the correct term for this kind of class, but I hope you understand what I mean. Usually you start a class, go through the material/units/topics for a set amount of sessions and finish the class at some point, all the students (supposedly) have the same level when they start and when they finish the class.
But with the open class I will have students who start in session 1 and I will get new students joining at lesson 10 etc. So the levels will always be different and the expectations will be very different, too, I guess. I know the concept only from driving schools and their theory lessons, I have never done this with English lessons.

Have you ever given open classes?
Do you have ideas/recommendations/tips for organizing an open class?

Any help would be highly appreciated!

Thanks in advance! Big hugs Heart

Kathy

16 Jun 2012

juliag

Hi Kathy,

I don �t teach open classes as such, but I know when kids join an already existing class even though it means a lot of extra work for me I make them take extra lessons until they have basically caught up with the others. It doesn �t sound like you could do this, but maybe you could make a pack of all the worksheets etc. you have used, so that even if the students joining later won �t be able to do oral work for the areas already covered, you could give them the pack and specify different listening/reading/writing tasks for them to do each week for homework so that they at least briefly cover the material they have missed. Of course, the more interesting the worksheets/activities are, the more likely they will be to do this.

I would imagine you will need to have some extra activities prepared for fast learners, so that there is something for them to do that is related to the theme when they finish practicing/talking before the students who joined later and so maybe aren �t as confident.

I think student groupings could work either way - either you could pair higher and lower level students together so the higher level student can help out the lower level student. Or you could pair students of a similar level together and either a) give slightly different tasks based on ability, or, b) give the same task with an extra task for fast learners to do afterwards.

Just a few thoughts, don �t know if they �ll be useful for you or not, but hope so.
Enjoy your time with your new students.
Julia

16 Jun 2012

Daisee

In some adult academies it is called ongoing enrolment - stds can begin at any time

For a teacher it is challenging but for the acedemies it means more income

Where I was we used a course book and just kept working through one module every week, supplemented by teacher designed materials. When we got to the end of the book we started again. There were different level classes so stds would go into the right level for them. Stds enrolled for different periods of time.

16 Jun 2012

silvia.patti

It �s a real challenge for you. I think you should choose four or five topics to teach and start with the order you want. When you finish your topics, you start again, changing activities, so that new students should be able to learn something for each topic.

16 Jun 2012