Experienced teachers have learned a great deal over the years about making multilevel classes run more smoothly and inclusively. The following suggestions have been distilled from my own classroom experience as well as years of working with other teachers who have helped inform my practice.

Clarify Realistic Goals
Negotiate realistic learning goals with students early on to help prevent false expectations that could lead to frustration. Once goals are established, find ways to check in with students regularly, even if informally. Regular check-ins help students evaluate their progress.

Create a "Student File Center"
A file box filled with individual folders for each student allows for a convenient classroom management tool. If some students are finished before others, or if the teacher is working with one group to the exclusion of another, students can go to their files and select independent work for short periods of time.

Establish Ground Rules
Ask students early on what they think they should be responsible for, and what the teacher should be responsible for, in a good classroom. Once ground rules are codified and posted, teachers can refer to them throughout the year.

Use Experiential Learning
The initial focus on doing something rather than reading something allows everyone in a multi-level class to participate. Cooking, conducting a science experiment, viewing an art exhibit are projects that allow language to emerge from the participants as well as the teacher. Follow-up requires structured language practice based on the activity: a multilevel language experience story, pair work for reading and writing.

Create Long-Term Projects
Long-term projects allow students to assume responsibility for a variety of tasks, some of which do not involve a high literacy or language proficiency level. Long-term projects can include student publications, filming, writing and performing plays, community activism.

Adapt Videos
Select materials with a strong narratives and vivid characters so the dialogue does not have to carry the entire meaning, and students of varying abilities can still participate. Develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities around the viewing segment, depending on what students can handle.

Teach to Different Groups at Different Times
Teach with an emphasis on the more proficient group of students at certain points in the cycle and to the less proficient at other times in the curriculum. Such an approach bypasses the tendency to always teach to the middle. If you opt for such an approach, explain to students what you are doing so they do not feel left out.

Use a Topic-Driven Curriculum
Negotiate themes with students, allowing them to unite around shared interests. Use whole class grouping to introduce a lesson around the topic, then group or pair students according to abilities.

Lenore Balliro is the editor of Field Notes. She can be reached at: lballiro@worlded.org