I work in a private university, where the average groups size is 65 to 80 students. The reading "Student-Centered Teaching in Large Classes with Limited Resources" is very helpful to teachers teaching large classes.

The most important thing I found in the article is to change the perception of a large class. I remember Baker and Westrup (2000) quote in the article: "A large class can be any number of students, if the teacher feels there are too many students for them all to make progress." And I find it to be crucial to succeed in high school: If you perceive it is possible to get 80 people to apprehend the class content, you can do it.  And I had the best example ever. When I was at university, I had the privilege to have a wonderful teacher, one of the best I have ever met. We were 205 students in his class (everybody wanted to take his class) and he used to teach in the best possible way, I just loved every single class I attended. That's what I would like to transmit to my colleagues because I have heard constant complains on the groups’ size.

What I would like to apply from the techniques mentioned in the article in my own groups is:

1. To set a clear L2 goal when working in groups to avoid L1 interference. When students have a clear goal and a limited time frame, they tend to work better. When there's no clear goal, you will pay for it!

2. Assign specific roles in teamwork with one member to monitor (and report) on the group behavior. I consider it crucial to have good teamwork environment. One behavior monitor who reports any misbehavior or disrespectful attitudes sounds like a wonderful solution to tense or disrespectful attitudes in teamwork.

3. Be available to students before or after class to establish personal relationships. Especially this year that we had to work in blended learning, personal relationships were essential for students, maybe it is paramount to build relatedness! I noticed clear cohesion in those groups that had met before the pandemic and a clear lack of relatedness in those who just met each other online.

Finally, I just would like to add that large groups can be amazing with clear and careful class planning. If you set clear class rules with your students' participation since day one, get the time to know your students' previous knowledge and expectations, and have clear learning goals, you can do wonders with whichever number of students you have.