Put Your Poster to Use!

In mixed-ability classes there are children who

will finish some exercises much quicker than
the rest of the class (often referred to as fast-
finishers). This leaves teachers with a
dilemma: let them wait or occupy them until
the rest of the group have finished. Too often,
the occupying task is something simple, like
drawing or colouring. As teachers we need to
ask ourselves, ‘Are the high-level achievers
being challenged?’. This poster reminds us
that we need to challenge all the students in our classes and that these challenges need to be
implemented before an exercise, as well as after.
How should I use my poster?
The poster includes some ideas for extension activities and has been divided into two
sections: ‘Before you start!’ tasks and ‘When you finish!’ tasks.
Before you start!
After setting up an exercise, ask the students, ‘What’s your challenge
today?’ They should all be able to set themselves a target using The
Learning Circle poster. Some of the more able students should be
encouraged to try and push themselves.
The easiest challenge to set up is a time limit. Ask the students how many
minutes they want and set a timer. Award points or stickers for those who manage to get
their predicted score within the time. It is important that each child works within their
capabilities, so make sure the students do NOT feel pressured to get all answers correct in a
set time frame.
For multiple-choice or gap-fill questions, high-achievers can challenge themselves to try to
answer the questions without looking at the options. Encourage them to cover the word bank
or options with a pencil case, ruler or book. When they have finished, they can look to see if
what they have written is included and check that none of the other options are correct.
Because this will take longer, they may not need an occupying task while they wait for the
rest of the class.
When you finish!
If you have time to do ‘live’ marking (in front of the student) don’t mark each question right
or wrong, just tell the student how many are incorrect. For example, if you mark a true/false
question wrong, it is obvious what the correct answer is. The same goes for multiple matching
if there are two wrong. If you tell the student how many they have wrong, they will need to
consider all of their answers again to correct them. This will make them notice why they have
made a mistake and has a better learning outcome.

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Depending on the type of questions in the exercise, you can then set one of the extension
challenges on the poster.
Personalising language
Ask a fast finisher to rewrite some of the questions or statements in the exercise so that they
are true for them or true for someone they know. They should keep the basic sentence the
same, perhaps changing the names of the people, or making it negative. Personalising the
language should make it more memorable.
Vocabulary extension
If the exercise includes new or unfamiliar words, ask the student to choose three words, find
out the definitions, write them in their vocabulary notebook, or write a sentence that helps
define the word. Depending on the level of the learners, you may want them to note the type
of word and any other forms it could take.
Write another question
Ask the fast finisher to write some more questions for the exercise that their friends could
answer.
Working with the options
Ask the students to look at the answer options in a multiple-choice question and choose one
that is incorrect. See if they can change the sentence to make that option correct.

About the Author – Jane Maria Harding da Rosa

Jane's ELT career has spanned over 25 years. She worked as the Director of
Studies and Teacher Training Coordinator at International House Porto,
specialising in Teaching English for Young Learners (in which she has a
master’s degree from York University). For 10 years, Jane worked as part of
the Academic Management Team at International House Newcastle and
was heavily involved in running CELTA, DELTA and CLIL methodology
courses. In 2020, Jane completed a PGCE in Primary Education and has since
taught in Primary schools in the North East of England. She designed this
Teaching Mixed-Abilities Pack using her expertise in English Language Teaching and her first‐
hand experience of teaching large classes of children.

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