TEAM MEMBERS: Dichiara, Font, Nina, Ratti

 

FAST-FINISHERS

 

1. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

 

"Every class is a world and every student is unique..."

 

Teachers face mixed-ability classes every year. Children learn at different paces: some of them are slow learners and some are fast learners. Some take longer to understand and learn a new language point, or to do a practice activity or task than others. If we work at the speed of the fast learners, the slower ones get left behind; if, on the other hand, we slow down to the pace of the slower learners, the stronger ones get bored and demotivated. It is important to find a balance and clear strategies for ensuring that stronger students are not held back or challenged insufficiently, and that weaker students have enough time to do the essential work.

 

Prevention, as we all know, is better than cure...

 

STARTING TOGETHER

As children who are slow to start are often slow to finish, it is useful to make sure that all pupils begin at the same time and, if necessary, give slow starters individual help. This way, disparity in finishing times is reduced significantly.

 

SETTING TIME LIMITS

Although it is important for the teacher's timing to be realistic and for the teacher to tell their pupils exactly how long they had left at regular intervals, by setting clear time limits, the aim is to motivate our pupil's output and concentration. Students will work faster and keep more firmly "on task". A successful, low-preparation strategy. 

 

GIVING OPEN-ENDED TASKS 

Rather than telling students to write six sentences, for example, we can ask them to write as many as they CAN in three minutes. In this way, all pupils can work at their own pace and level, a weaker pupil would produce two sentences and a stronger one, eight.

 

DIFFERENTIATING TASKS

As we all know, different proficiency students should ideally do different tasks. If we adapt tasks, each students will have the level of challenge appropriate to his or her proficiency and everyone will be able to do the task in more or less the same time. However, we do run the risk that the weaker students could start to become demotivated if they are always given easier tasks, although we do agree that weaker performers would even be more demotivated by always finishing last and getting things wrong!

 

DIFFERENTIATING CORRECTION

By using different correction techniques, we can manage more efficiently the time it takes students to finish their work. For example, stronger students can be asked not only to correct, but also to identify and correct the mistake. Stronger students are encouraged to think more for themselves and the extra time they spend correcting their own errors is time well spent. This techniques may be more appropriate to use with old primary-aged pupils.

 

BUT SOMETIMES, WE ALL NEED A LITTLE EXTRA HELP...

 

Dealing with fast finishers may be a challenge for teachers. They often get bored or feel proud of being "the first" in their class and finishing the tasks efficiently and quickly; because of these facts they may become more excited and interrupt the rest of the students who are still working. 

We have to try and cater simultaneously for different learning speeds in the class.  It is therefore very important that we have a range of strategies to deal with fast finishers. Here are some:

 

• Checking work: This is the first thing fast finishers should be encouraged to do. They may have error checklists to help them to do this. We could look at their work and tell them how many mistakes there are, without telling them what they are or where they are. They have to then try and find them. They can also check their work with another student who has also finished. If the task is one in which there are right and wrong answers, and there are differences, they can try and work out who is right. If the task is a freer exercise, they can look for any errors in each other's work. 
• Helping other student: We can ask fast finishers to go and help students who have not finished or who are finding the task difficult. This promotes co-operation between learners. It is important that right from the beginning we foster a sense of support and co-operation among learners rather than competition or resentment. Fast-finishers can help others even when working in groups: when a group finishes, they can disperse and join other teams. 
• Additional exercises: Most courses have more than enough work to get through in a year. Fast finishers can therefore do exercises that we had not have time to do with the whole class, especially those exercises from the part of the book we have already covered and we know we won't want to  use with the class. It is ideal if the book has a key so that students can check their own work. If it doesn't, they can check with another student. 
• Workcards/sheets: We can have a collection of laminated workcards/sheets or photocopies of different exercises. Fast finishers can be given an activity, e.g. a crossword or other word puzzle top do while the other students are finishing off. 
• Readers:Fast finishers can get on with their reader. If we are working with one reader with the whole class, we can encourage stronger students to choose an additional reader which they can read on their own at times like these.        

 

A good fast-finisher activity should be:

• useful- that it should imply some kind of extension activity which allows stronger pupils to learn more.
• relevant- that it is connected with the topic being studied or as a revision of something already studied.
• appropriate- that it suits the linguistic, as well as cognitive level of the learners.
• simple- that it does not require complex instructions.
• autonomous- that it can be done without taking up too much teacher-time. 
• easy-to-end- that it can be finished quickly and is easy to check.
• discreet- that it does not disturb the rest of the group.
• flexible- that the activity will work for individuals or for pairs.
• fun- that it will not be seen as an onerous "punishment".

 

  

 

• You can set extra tasks to avoid leaving them doing nothing. Prepare a bunch of extra reproducible worksheets or "fast finishers" and make them available for the class. Fast finishers will then pick up a fun sheet once they are done with the class tasks. 

 

• It's a good idea to make and decorate an envelope (or more than one if you have different classes and levels) to keep the worksheets in. In big letters, write "Work done... Pick one!" next to the envelope and hang it somewhere on the classroom wall for students' easy access. 

 

• The type of activities can vary: brain teasers, puzzles, word games, riddles and any other activity to help you keep your early finisher students entertained while the rest of the class works. At the same time, these tasks will help them develop logical and creative thinking. They will surely ask for more!

 

EXTRA TIPS

 

*Let students choose their own "fast finisher" activity (provided they are correctly levelled). If students are to choose their own activities, bear the following advice in mind:

1. It cannot involve spending money to do it!
2. It has to be a quiet activity.
   • They have to be able to do it alone.
   • Teacher has the final approval.

 

*Explain that "fast finishers" are only available to students who finish "first" in the class and not to all the "finishers". 

 

*Make clear that they can only pick a sheet out of the envelope if they have done the class task well and not in a hurry for the only purpose of taking one extra activity.

 

*Ask each fast finisher to write his/her name on the activity sheet and hand it in after they complete it (if for one reason or other they can't complete the task, they can take it home or resume it another time).

 

*"Fast finishers" should be corrected since they are "extra work for extra marks." 

 

 

2. ACTIVITIES FOR FAST FINISHERS 

 

UK teacher's forum: one of the teachers suggested the following:

 

- Give the children a country, or a word related to current topic/literacy work.  Challenge them to find a boy's name for every letter.  Or a fruit.  Or a country.  Or a vegetable.

 

- Start the children off with a word (again linked to topic/literacy or not as the case may be!).  Working on a theme, they can take the last letter of the first word to be the first letter of the second word.  Then the last letter of the second to be the frst of the third....and so on.....  Banana, apple, elderberry, yam, and so on. You could challenge them to make a 'word circle' where they try to get more than five words where the last letter of the last word is the first of the first word!

 

Probably, they are more suitable for kids, but teenagers may like it as well.

 

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES:

 

It may be possible to extend some activities. Here are some ideas:

 

Reading comprehension:

If students have been answering questions about a text, they could:

...write some more questions.

...do another task which asks them to react to the text in some way, e.g. say if they liked the story and why. 

...draw a picture to go with it. 

...supply a different ending.

...imagine the conversation between two people in the text. 

...say what they think happened next. 

...choose some words from the text to look up in their dictionaries.

...write definitions for some of the words in the text and test other fast-finishers. 

 

Grammar exercises:

If they have been doing an exercise to practise a specific structure, they could:

...write some more simple examples.

...practise saying the sentences to another fast-finisher (to practise pronunciation). 

 

Writing:

If they have written a paragraph about something, they could:

...write a little bit more.

...write another one. 

 

Vocabulary: 

If they have been doing some work on vocabulary on a particular topic, they could:

...think of more words associated with the topic in L1, then find out what they are in English (in a bilingual/picture dictionary).

...practise saying the words to another fast-finisher to practise pronunciation.

...do a specific pronunciation activity, e.g. group the words according to the number of syllables or where the stress is, or identify which words contain a particular sound.

 

Speaking:

If they have been doing a pairwork speaking activity, they could:

...do it again (e.g. if it's a dialogue) in a different mood, sounding happy, angry, sad, bored, etc.

...write it down.

...do it again, giving different answers to the questions (if it is a question and answer activity). 

 

Listening comprehension:

If they have been completing a task after a listening activity, they could:

...read through the tapescript. 

...write down any new words from the tapescript.

...read the tapescript aloud in pairs.

 

More fast-finishers activities and some links:

 

1. http://www.teachnet.com/powertools/take5/082799earlyfinishers.html

 

2. Each sentence has 2 blanks which can be filled with one word with multiple meanings. What are the words for each sentence?

 

A. I dropped my buttered ? under the table and heard it ? across the floor.

B. After we chose a nice ? for our picnic, I noticed a ? on my shirt.

C. The forest ranger couldn't ? to see the ? caught in a trap.

D. She will ? in a movie abut an astronomer who discovers new nearby ?

E. For Mary, it was a total ? to catch a ? during the camping trip since they don't normally swim where she was fishing.

F. I ? the gauze tightly around the ? so it wouldn't bleed of get infected.

 

3. The "Word Wall" is a clear over-the-door shoe organizer, and there is a vocabulary word clipped to each shoe compartment. After a word has been up for a few days, the expectation is that there will be several index cards in the word's pocket from those students who have the time to write one.  They can write the word's definition, draw a picture of it, use it in a sentence, or even write a story or poem using the word. 

 

4 http://www.amazon.com/Activities-Fast-Finishers-Vocabulary-Reproducible/dp/043941122X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246882099&sr=1-2#reader

 

5.   You can have a poster in the front of the room with "What to do when I'm done" activities. They include...

·         Write a letter to a friend. Students may write to a friend or email them about what they have been doing at school, a personal issue…

·         Do a word search or puzzle. Write in your journal.

·         Look at a book from the browse basket. These are usually books not at an instructional level, but related to what we are studying.

·         You can also have file folder games that you can buy or make from your local teacher's store.

·         Practice spelling words on a dry erase board or small chalkboard.

 

6. At this site you will find 38 file folder games: www.enchantedlearning.com in search put “file folder games”

 

7. Here readers will find activities on vocabulary and language to use with fast-finishers.

http://books.google.com.ar/books?id=dfFej4Nx3-oC&dq=fast+finishers+activities+language&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=q6j_oTZhPR&sig=T0hZGCw3miqcYlM0M2vxSuexVsc&hl=es&ei=se5RSov1Hs-VtgfzttCoBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8

 

8. Here readers will find language activities to use with fast finishers.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/407549/46-Finishers

 

9. Here readers will find a multiple choice exercise for fast finishers related to the Nervous System. http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/averroes/cp_vcabeza/bilingue/ficha_ns.pdf

 

10. Here readers will find five ideas for fast-finishers: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3748222

 

 

 

3. LINKS FOR FURTHER READING

 

• http://www.scribd.com/doc/407542/3-What-Think  

 

The following is a page that suggests some general activities that could be used for fast finishers as well. They are part of the Heinemann English Teaching Magazine and I really liked all the material that appears in this number. There are suggestions for first lessons, and some tips about ASSERTIVE DISCIPLINE, too! I found it VERY USEFUL! Don't miss it!

• http://www.scribd.com/doc/407712/pc36