Starting a new year or semester can be nerve-wracking for any teacher. I remember in my first few years of teaching, I’d get all sorts of butterflies in the days and weeks leading up to my first day of class. However, over time, I began to learn what did and didn’t work in those first few days, and now I feel equipped to set up my language classroom for success every year! So what do I recommend?

1. Show up early and greet students at the door. It’s so important to set a positive tone for your class by greeting students at the door with a smile and an introduction. This gives you the chance to learn names, begin gauging personalities, and make critical one-on-one contact. (I suggest doing this every day if you can! If that’s not an option, make it a priority for the first week.)
2. Jump into language learning. Going over the syllabus, setting clear rules and expectations, and teaching routines are all important aspects of the first week of school, but do you know what students don’t expect? And what they love? Jumping into language learning! Imagine your students come to you for the last class of the day. They’ve already sat through numerous classes where teachers have talked at them for an hour, explained rules they’ll probably forget, and gone over the syllabus. Now, contrast that with your students coming to your classroom where instead of doing the same thing, they jump right into language learning with an engaging lesson plan or activity. By doing this, you’re getting students excited for your class, and you’re boosting their confidence by giving them immediate ways to improve their English! Save the routines and expectations for later; instead, start with fun language learning!
3. Do diagnostic testing. I know–I said the “T” word… but it’s not what you think. Diagnostic testing doesn’t have to be formal! Remember how I suggested a fun language learning activity on the first day of class? That can be a part of your diagnostic testing! Shhhhhh, don’t let your students know! Diagnostic testing can be done whenever a student is required to express or interpret English. If they have to write an answer to a question, pair up with a speaking partner, or simply follow audio directions, you can start to get a feel for where their proficiency is at and what skills are their strong-suits! While a more formal diagnostic test may be appropriate for your class, you can always consider more creative ways to determine where your students are at. Diagnostic information will guide your whole semester/year, so be sure to do it in some form or fashion!
4. Build community. Learning any language requires a lot of confidence. You need confidence to fail over and over and to not give up. You need confidence to make mistakes in front of your peers. You need confidence to speak up even when you don’t know all the words or grammar structures. Confidence, confidence, confidence. It is really hard to be confident when you don’t feel safe; thus, it’s incredibly important that as teachers, we are facilitating a classroom where students can feel safe and develop their confidence. What are some ways we can do this? By building community. Small group work, silly learning activities, icebreakers, and normalizing mistakes are all some of the ways that you can build a safe classroom. In your first week of class, find ways to build community so that your students feel confident showing up everyday to learn.

Looking for a fun activity to do in your first week of class? One that incorporates all the language skills, gets students interacting with one another, teaches you more about your students, builds community, and can be used as an informal diagnostic? Check out my All About Me Zine project! It’s perfect for novice, intermediate, and advanced 7th-12th graders and adults in their first or second week of class.

One of the hardest classes I’ve ever had to teach was a community ESL class. Not only did I have students who hardly knew how to say “hello,” but I also had students who spoke nearly perfect English–and they were all there to learn. In order to make these 90 minute classes effective, I had to figure out how to structure the mixed-level class so they could all grow–not just the newcomers, but the advanced ELLs as well. Years later, I also taught mixed-level classes in K-12. Here are some of my favorite strategies for teaching English to a class with a range of proficiency levels:

1. Have a warm-up routine. Regardless of proficiency level, students can all start class out in the same way. I suggest a regular warm-up activity or language learning activity. You could consider something like having all students answer the same “icebreaker” question or having students list as many words in English that start with a certain letter. What’s important here is that your warm-up includes all students and that it’s predictable. This predictability allows your more novice students to more easily mentally prepare for the start of class each day. (For secondary ESOL classes, here’s a video about one of my favorite daily warm-up activities!)
2. Teach thematically. When you have mixed-level classes, teaching thematically can be a really easy way for you to stay sane. Instead of teaching each proficiency level a different topic, opt for teaching them the same topic, but at different levels. Think about if you’re teaching students about vacations. You could teach all students vacation vocabulary (which may only be a review for more advanced students, but that’s okay!), and then differentiate some of the activities based on proficiency. Think of ways that students can still work together across proficiency levels. While they may read different level passages independently, maybe they can work together in small groups to design a dream vacation. Save yourself time by teaching all students about the same topic/theme! (If you want a fun lesson plan that’s already differentiated for you for novice and intermediate ELLs, check this one out!)
3. Scaffold, scaffold, scaffold. Speaking of differentiation, it’s important that what you’re teaching students is accessible. What may be possible for intermediate and advanced students, may not be possible for more novice students. Be sure your activities are scaffolded based on proficiency level and ability. This may mean that you have two or three versions of the same activity. The instructions for more novice learners may include pictures and bolded words while instructions for more proficient students may be in typical word form. Think about the supports each proficiency level will need, and then provide that! This may take some prep work up front, but it will pay off during class.
4. Use sentence stems. My last tip for mixed-level classes is to use sentence stems. This is an easy way to make sure all students can participate. If you’re warming up with an icebreaker question, have the sentence stem on the board so students can fully answer the question! If students are doing speaking pair work, offer sentence stems so less proficient students can still be successful. If a student doesn’t need a sentence stem, they won’t use it, but even advanced students may have something to learn about grammar structures in sentence stems they see!

Teaching mixed-level proficiency classes is no cake walk, but hopefully these tips help you feel more confident in your classroom!