Tips and Strategies for Working with Multilevel Classes

Maybe you’ve heard it said that every class is a multilevel class. That’s true, but some classes are a lot more multilevel than others! For example, a fairly common scenario is to have literacy level learners who are still working on learning basic letter and sound patterns in the same class with low and high beginning English language learners. We see multilevel scenarios in more advanced Adult Education classes as well. It can feel challenging to engage all learners at all levels. Here are a few ideas to try: 

• If you decide to consistently break up your class into different same-level groups, be explicit about which group learners are in, and celebrate when they move to the higher group. 

• One volunteer or teacher works with one group on a routine task that learners are familiar with while the other volunteer or teacher works with the other group. 
• Differentiate learner roles. For example, have higher level students write answers to questions you ask the whole class on a dry erase board and let lower level students say their answers. Additionally, when working in pairs, have higher level students ask questions and lower level students answer, or vice versa, depending on the difficulty of the questions and answers.
• Use curricula with linked levels. Examples are English Unlocked Beginning Literacy and Beginning and Ventures multilevel worksheets. 
• Set up stations activities that become routine so that learners know what to do at each one. Vary the range of difficulty of the stations and assign more difficult stations to the higher group. The Literacy Workstations from Literacy Minnesota are a great resource for Beginning Literacy and Beginning level classrooms. Watch this video to hear how one teacher does stations in her adult ESL classroom. 
• Have higher level students work on a self-directed, routine task on computers while you do a short activity with the lower group.
• When creating worksheet-based activities, make an adapted one that has fewer exercises and less writing required for lower level students. 
• Watch this video of a multi-level class and the teacher explaining how she manages it. 

Engaging all the levels can take planning and practice, but it will become easier. Try one of these strategies and add another as you master the first one.

For questions or comments about this Tutor Tip, contact Tutor Training Coordinator, Meghan Boyle, at mboyle@literacymn.org.