Lunch n Learn: Multilevel Teaching Strategies #2: One Lesson, Many Levels — Telescoping, Tasks and Criteria

This is the practical heart of the series: three techniques that let every learner work from the same lesson at their own level. Telescoping tasks are built in parts — lower-level learners complete Part 1, higher-level learners carry on to Parts 2 and 3 — and we work through how to telescope vocabulary lists, question sets, readings and writing tasks, plus the scaffolds (word banks, outlines, glossaries, repeated listenings) that make Part 1 achievable for literacy learners.

We then flip the approach two ways. Same material, different task works well for listening and reading: one text, one recording, different things asked of different levels. Same task, different criteria works well for speaking and writing: everyone writes the cover letter or gives the presentation, but each level works to its own checklist. We look at making criteria transparent, eliciting criteria from learners, working with models — and what to do when a lower-level learner leaps past their own criteria.

You’ll leave with: a task you have already telescoped, and level criteria drafted for one speaking or writing task you teach.