When we conducted a survey of 25 primary Englishteachers in Cambridge School, Granollers to find out what difficulties they were having in class, the number one problem that they came up with was FAST FINISHERS! As a result, we decided to set up an Action ResearchProject (a practical investigation that we hoped would offer some reasons and come up with different techniques for dealing with the problem). We tested each approach out with different classes and agegroups and came up with our own set of strategies for dealing with fast finishers. This article deals withsome of the results of our research.

Before setting about our

Action Research Project,

wedecided that a good fast finishers activity should be:

•

useful

– that it should imply some kind of extensionactivity which allows stronger pupils to learn more.•

relevant

– that it is connected with the topic being studiedor as revision of something already studied.•

appropriate

– that it suits the linguistic, as well ascognitive level of the learners.•

simple

– that it does not require complex instructions.•

autonomous

– that it can be done without taking up toomuch teacher-time.•

easy-to-end

– that it can be finished quickly and is easyto check •

discreet

– that it does not disturb the rest of the group.•

flexible

– that the activity will work for individuals orfor pairs.•

fun

– that it will not be seen as an onerous 'punishment'.

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

Starting Together

As the children who were slow to start were often the lastto finish, we made sure that all pupils began at the sametime and if necessary, gave slow starters individual help

Result:

Disparity in finishing times was reducedsignificantly, although we still had some fast finishers todeal with!

Setting Time Limits

Although we felt it was important for the teacher’s timingto be realistic and for the teacher to tell their pupils exactly howlong they had left at regular intervals, by setting clear time limits,our aim was to motivate our pupils’ output and concentration.

Result:

Students did work faster and kept more firmly‘on task’. A successful, low-preparation strategy.

Giving Open-Ended Tasks

Rather than telling children to write 6 sentences, for example,we instructed them to write as many as they

COULD

inthree minutes.

Result:

A successful strategy as all the pupils could work at their own pace and level, a weaker student would producetwo sentences and a stronger one, eight.

Differentiating Tasks

As we all know, different proficiency pupils should ideallydo different tasks. If all children get a worksheet, such asthe one below, weaker pupils are able to refer to the namesof the insects at the bottom of the worksheet to help themand stronger pupils can be challenged by folding thepaper back and trying to do the exercise from memory.

Result:

Each pupil had a level of challenge moreappropriate to his or her proficiency and everyone was ableto do the task in more or less the same time. However, wedid feel that weaker pupils could start to become de-motivated if they were always given easier tasks, althoughwe did agree that weaker performers would be even morede-motivated by always finishing last and getting thingswrong!

Differentiating Correction

By using different correction techniques, we found wewere able manage more efficiently the time it takes studentsto finish their work. Pupil A, in the example below, is aweaker finisher, so the teacher has corrected the mistake

fully

. Pupil B is a mid-level student who is neither notablyfast or slow to finish, so the teacher has

identified

the error,

fold here for stronger students

wormladybirddragonflycaterpillarbutterfly

but the pupil has to correct it. Pupil C is a strong fastfinisher and is therefore, expected to both

identify

and

correct

the mistake.

Pupil A Pupil B Pupil C

I like swim ming

I like swim

Result:

Stronger students were encouraged to think morefor themselves and the extra time they spent correctingtheir own errors was time well spent. We were all verypositive about this idea, but felt that these techniques weremost appropriate to use with older primary-aged pupils.

But sometimes, we all need a little extra help...

Extension Activities

We found that this was often the most appropriate andrelevant thing to keep fast finishers usefully occupied. Hereare five favourite ‘extension’ activities that we identifiedin our research.Extend the Exercise:ie “Now write two more sentencesusing the model.”Illustrate the Exercise:Pupils drew pictures next to thesentences to show their meaning.Memorise the Exercise:Pupils memorised the sentencesand then tested each other. (Thisworked especially well withquestion and answer tasks).Translate the Exercise:Pupils wrote L1 translations nextto the sentences or words.Dictate Sentences:Pupils dictated sentences (or speltwords) to each other.

Result:

Manageable, low-preparation activities that werenot time-consuming and did keep fast finishers usefullyoccupied!

Create a Puzzle Box

We also asked fast finishers to create self-access materialsthat could be used by themselves and/or the rest of theclass at a later date. We found that it was a good idea tohave some examples already made up for our pupils tofollow if we wanted our pupils to work efficiently andindependantly of the teacher!

Anagram Cards:

Pupils wrote an anagram on a pieceof card, with the correct version of word on the back of the card.

Pelmanism Cards:

On one set of cards, pupils drewitems of vocabulary and on another, they wrote a set of corresponding word cards. These cards were then used fora variety of matching and memory games*.

‘Odd-One-Out’ Cards:

On one side of a card pupilswrote a series of words and on the other side, they explainedthe exceptioneg

Spelling Cards:

On one side of a card, pupils drew apicture of a word and a series of blanks to indicate thenumber of missing letters corresponding to that word. Theythen wrote the correct answer on the reverse side of thecard. (To help weaker or younger pupils we also askedpupils to write in the first letter as a clue).eg

On-Going Projects

Here fast finishers worked with display projects [whichthey could put together over a series of classes and work independently to produce].

Word Wall:

We cleared a large wall space and asked fastfinishers to write the lexis they had been studying ontopieces of card and draw pictures of these words onto othercards. As the term progressed, they gradually built up a

word wall

of all the vocabulary sets they had studied. Cardswere blu-tacked up and the wall was used for games.