Reading techniques for mixed ability IELTS classes in the age of Zoom

The focus in the IELTS reading component, for the academic and general versions of the exam, is on testing competence, that is use of the language rather than language knowledge per se. Yet, the temptation for many students and teachers is to focus on the latter. A common outcome of this is that candidates fail to make progress during IELTS preparation by themselves or in courses and perform well below their level of competence in the reading component in the exam itself, much to their own frustration, and that of their teacher. A slight and gradual shift of focus to using the English language to complete tasks, while not forgetting the language itself, can make a huge difference in classroom activities and ultimately lead to student success. This shift can be achieved with a greater awareness of the organization and navigation of knowledge and information, and a few changes in approach and methodology.

And this is a shift that can be brought about even in the midst of the very evident and understandable frustrations of dealing with the current necessity of teaching and learning online.

Teaching online is now carried out against a backdrop of physical issues, such as using inadequate chairs and tables, staring at screens on computer monitors, laptops, and tablets if we are lucky, or instead on smartphones. Having taught via video-conferencing, FaceTime, and Skype for the past 15 plus years, I recently found myself delivering reading and writing IELTS tasks to a disparate group level-wise, mostly on mobiles via Zoom, and giving feedback on writing to someone on their way to work, which all threw the dynamics of preparing students in mixed ability classes for the reading component of the IELTS exam into very sharp relief. And as well as being conscious of the mixed media used by our students, there are issues of data availability, signal problems and the dearth of sufficient body language to gauge how a class is progressing. Acutely sensitive to student body language while teaching, we as teachers have to be aware of the distortion all these issues bring out on students’ faces and remind ourselves that we are not solely responsible for those concentrated, wan faces.

We can play safe and follow a chalk-talk sequence of steps and replicate the real classroom. Using a Zoom classroom as an example, in the main room we can give students time to survey, read/ scan skim one reading text with questions within a tight time limit.

Students can:

1. Do the test by themselves and then check the answers with the whole class. (There is, of course, the horror of silence while you are doing nothing as students are working.) OR

2. Do the test at home by themselves before a class, and check the answers with the whole class, or check together in pairs or groups and then with the whole class. OR

3. Do a test by themselves and check together in pairs or groups and then with the whole class. OR

4. Do part of a reading test, say matching headings, by themselves and then check together in pairs or groups followed by whole class checking.

By the time we get to stage 4 above, we are starting to break up a reading test, which the constraints of a medium such as Zoom encourages and allows us to do. We can vary a session on reading by giving students part of the reading test, say, headings with the answers, as well as the text and questions. We can put the students into groups and ask them to explain why the answers are correct and prepare to present the answers as group to the rest of the class. Over time, weaker students can gradually be prepared to give feedback with stronger students lending support. Without the interference of the whole class and without the teacher listening attentively, weaker students can begin to flourish, especially in this task where are no wrong answers.

Another task-oriented approach to help build confidence throughout a mixed ability class is to give students part of a reading passage, say a couple of paragraphs, and ask them to work in breakout rooms and decide what type of IELTS questions they would use to check text comprehension, and give an explanation why. Time permitting, or in another session, students could be asked to come up with examples of questions. They can do all this verbally or fill out a table headed: Text; Questions; Why. You can then give students the questions relating to the passage to do as a group/class test.

We can manipulate a reading test, text and questions in many ways to help break up the testing into digestible chunks for the students online. We can let the constraints of the technological situation dictate the teaching and learning process. Ask students to work in groups with a text and questions, sharing a Word, PDF, or jpeg on screen within their group and mark where the answer is (on a split screen paragraph at the top and the question below). As their linguistic and technological confidence grows, students can be asked to focus on the organization of the text and the questions, colour-coding the various essential elements or functions, such as examples, causes and effects, reasons and so on, within a paragraph. Gradually, they can build up an awareness of how information and knowledge fit together. So feedback to the whole class can be given not just on the answers, but on the layout of the text and the questions. Such close reading as part of a bottom-up approach can lead to greater flexibility and encourage students to develop a top-down approach to reading as well.

A few decades ago at the beginning of my teaching career, a student came up at the end of a term’s course and said: “You know, you have taught us nothing, but I can now do everything.” That has informed my teaching ever since.

And the writing component? Well, that is another blog.