USE IT!
Activity ideas for fast-finishers
by Dan Vincent Dan Vincent is a teacher and materials writer, who has worked in the UK, Japan, Ukraine and Spain, with a teaching career spanning over 20 years. He was one of the founders of the Global English Training (GET) Program of the international NGO Peace Boat, has studied materials development for endangered languages, and is co-author of a new teens course for Cambridge University Press. He lives in Spain and works for the British Council Madrid. What are fast-finisher activities? Anyone who has taught young learners will be familiar with that all-too-common classroom cry of ‘Finished!’ Inevitably, there are always going to be students who complete activities early, especially activities which don’t require the entire class to be kept in step. Keeping these students occupied is crucial for good classroom management, especially with a mixed-ability class, but it has to be done in a meaningful way. This is where fast finisher activities come in. These are easy-to-prepare, easy-to-set activities that a teacher can give students to do while the rest of the class are still completing the main activity. What makes a good fast-finisher activity? It’s important to bear in mind that those students who finish before others often want something more challenging to get on with than simply another exercise to work through. Ideally, therefore, fast-finisher activities should be stimulating extras rather than add-ons that keep students occupied. They also need to be self-explanatory so that students can get on with them by themselves without the need for supervision. For the same reason, it’s best if they don’t require much feedback or are self-checking, otherwise you run the risk of students feeling their extra efforts have gone to waste.
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