As a completely new teacher, many years ago,  I taught a fifth grade class for their first year of English, four half hours each week. My guidance lecturers had stressed that EFL should be taught as a child learns their first language: orally for the first year. I dutifully followed these instructions for the first term, during which time I became aware that two pupils--one, a tall, dark-haired, well-developed girl and another, a very small, lighter-haired boy--did not participate in the activities voluntarily and never opened their mouths.  When I opened the second term by giving out printed name tags to the children and  marking everything in the classroom with its printed name, they suddenly became alive. They learned the written alphabet before all the others and could immediately read anything I wrote for them. The girl was able to tell me that she could only learn words which were written down--but if she just heard them, she could not grasp them at all. I never again taught according to “the theory”.

 While we were not yet aware of multiple intelligences theory and alternative methods of teaching, it was obvious that not everything that was done in the classroom translated into an activity which interested and catered to the needs of every pupil.

 We learn through the five senses: sight,  the visual; hearing, the auditory; and touch, the kinesthetic; and the senses of smell and taste also play roles in learning--they are very powerful memory triggers. Some of us use one sense better than the others.

Our personality also influences the way we learn. Some people are interested in the social aspect of a problem. Some want the bottom line and less detail.  Some like to know about the people who are involved in achieving the knowledge. And some people, especially (but not always) the young, learn in chunks; others, (usually older learners but again not always) learn one piece at a time.  Some learn analytically, some synthetically (creatively) and some practically ( street-wise). Different combinations or emphasis on any of these learning preferences--and many others that I have not mentioned--make each one of us a unique learner.

 Every student in any system of education could benefit by being classified as a special education student. Imagine the potential that every student would fulfill if taught by a private tutor using teaching methods that cater to that special and unique learner. The only thing which is lacking is the funding!
 
Teaching a class  means catering to multiple idiosyncratic methods of learning. In the younger, elementary school classes it is easier to implement different strategies. We can dance and sing and plod round the class. We can draw and paint and model and create. We can caretake small creatures and watch their movements. The golden rule,  that teachers must change activities every ten minutes to maintain the attention of younger learners, in itself provides the framework for varying activities and insuring that we cater to the unique needs of each child during each lesson.

In junior high and high school classes, it is more difficult for teachers to dictate the curriculum and teaching methods:  our sophisticated teenagers in this electronic age have their own ideas about what they should do and learn. I have found that it is a good idea to acquaint the pupils with the theories of learning and let each one decide for himself which is his best style of learning, how he can help himself to identify his needs and which path of learning he should follow in order to feed those strengths.

This approach may act as a spur for the reluctant learner:  for example, having declared that he learns best by writing things out, he is now required to use his newly acquired insight to do some work. Students  should also be told  that learning styles may change and develop over time, so that complete reliance on only one style is not encouraged. Most of the newer text books have varied exercises which are meant to appeal to different learning styles and the pupils may be required to do only those exercises which complement their personal style.

 It is important to find subjects that interest our students. In today’s wired world, any subject under the sun may be found on the Internet and pupils should be encouraged to read and research what they think is important. That uncooperative teenager “monster” may turn into a prince  when following the American Baseball results, studying and analyzing them,  and then reporting them in the class newspaper.

There will always be one or two students who are not interested in anything - those with “no antennae to the world around them” -  and they are the hardest nuts to crack.  We can’t always predict what might catch a student’s interest:  How about printing off pages in full colour from the Internet  - attractive home pages with exciting graphics (of which there are millions to choose from!) - and seeing if, in a pile of twenty such pages from different sites scattered around the class, something doesn’t click? You don’t have to  waste the time yourself - get some of the kids to come in with pages from places which have good graphic openers. Develop a project on evaluating the graphics and sites. Apart from blatantly uneducational sites (!) it is important to allow as much freedom as possible in the search for interesting topics.

How does one teacher with a class of thirty +  students manage to do this ?

Teaching is a very demanding profession. It takes imagination, creativity and plain hard work. Using group work and projects is one answer. It takes hours of planning and preparation but the end-product is worth it. Try to encourage the kids to do the work, find the material, print the pages, and even organize the project. In today’s world we should be able to cater to all.
 It is hard.  But then,  I never promised you a rose garden.