Typically we have early finishers because hand few students have found the assignment easy therefore they get through the work before the rest of the class leaving them with nothing else to do. The experienced teacher would prepare for this by having a worksheet or "early finishers packet" (busy work) or have routines in place such as a "May Do" or Quiet Activity" for these students to complete, usually unrelated to the topic or lesson. This is necessary because when these early finishers are done with their work they want something else to do and if it isn't engaging they either become a distraction to the rest of the class and their learning or a behavior problem.
Through my driving question, I plan to explore what can be done to reduce various behavior issues in my class when particularly, my advanced boys, have completed their assigned work by not just throwing addition empty work at them. In researching articles related to my topic I found that internationally this is an issue as well. A study by Jane Marshall explores the oldest problem in education, the epidemic of ennui,(dissatisfaction/excitement, i.e- bored) of school among pupils in France considering its centrally controlled system appearing to be the foundation of other school problems. Nationally is where most of my articles were centered. I found many other studies where teachers struggled in the classroom with teaching mixed ability students and how to incorporate differentiation towards advanced learners. One article that caught my attention was, "Juxtaposing mathematical extensions with cognitively loaded questions in the mathematics classroom", by various authors published by the University of Calgary. This article offered ideas of bonus questions after the initial assignment is completed still on the current lesson or topic to deepen students mathematical understanding. By simply extending what they are already doing it gives opportunity for more practice. Calling them bonus questions leads the students to believe the are continuing on with the classwork not doing anything extra or more because they finished early and it's okay if everyone doesn't get to it. As far as districts I know data and numbers are important. If the amount of behavior related infractions are entered in SWISS such as referrals; suspensions; drop outs decrease and a noticeable positive increase with advanced learner's academics, districts get acknowledged by the state. Finally school wide, ideally we would see classrooms with engaged students at all learning levels. Teachers with less time taken away from learning to deal with behavior issues, building a classroom community that respects all students learning among peers.
3 Comments
Lisa Marie Smith
3/4/2019 09:15:01 pm
Alexis,
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Karling Skoglund
3/6/2019 06:36:33 pm
Alexis,
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golden
3/6/2019 09:14:35 pm
I’m really interested to see what your research brings. I feel that a lot of teachers deal with the issue of students rushing through their work and goofing around once they are done. The national focus was great how they extended the students work, not really giving them extra work. By doing this, they got more practice doing the task and did not feel like extra work.
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