How do you manage a large class with different levels?

This question is really two: can you keep order without fear, and can you teach the weakest and the strongest in the same 40 minutes. Panels ask it because it is the daily reality: a Grade 3 class of 75 in an IDP-area school in Mogadishu or Baidoa can hold children aged 7 to 14, some who have never held a pencil and some who read well. “I teach to the average” is the answer that loses the marks.

• Rules and routines from day one: five rules agreed with the class, the same start every lesson (greeting, date on the board, a two-minute starter), a hand signal for silence. Routines save ten minutes a lesson in a big class.
• Groups with leaders: six to eight groups, each with a leader who collects slates and helps. Rotate the leaders monthly so girls and quiet children lead too.
• Positive discipline: praise the behaviour you want in public, correct in private, and keep a simple record. A disruptive child gets a job, a quiet word and a call home with good news the first day he behaves, never a stick or a name on a shame list.

• Find the levels in week one with a short reading or number check, and keep a page per child.
• Same topic, three tasks: everyone works on today's outcome, but the task cards have a core level, an easier version with pictures or smaller numbers, and a stretch question for those who finish.
• Peer support: a stronger reader beside a weaker one, with a clear job: “listen to your partner read, then swap”.
• Small-group time: 15 minutes twice a week with the five or six weakest, while the others do practice work under the group leaders.