I'm Done!

Hands up if you hear this a lot!

There are always those students that finish their work early! Then we’re scrambling to get them to do something else. “Go read a book”, “run this errand for me”, “go help so and so”. So, what can we do about this? Giving them more work or busy work isn’t necessarily the answer or motivating.

We might need to reflect on the work that we’re assigning. If the same students are finishing early all the time, then perhaps their learning needs aren’t being met.

Can we tweak the assignment? Can we use the same assignment to provide more opportunities for critical and creative thinking?

If we think about higher order thinking, there are different levels of questions or prompts that can be made.

What examples can you find to…?

How would you organize…to show…?

How is … related to…?

What ideas justify…?

Do you agree with…?

How would you rate…?

What changes would you make?

What way would you design…?

Take a look at one of your assignments. How can you tweak it for some of your students?