How to stretch higher attainers

When we have a large group of students in front of us, we often have a diverse range of attainment and learning styles.

Often, when we prepare lessons, we focus on the weaker attainers and make sure we are supporting them through the use of simplified worksheets or scaffolding to support writing activities.

However, it is important to remember that we also have higher attainers in our midst and we must ensure that we also provide opportunities for these students to flourish and progress in equal measures.

Catering to higher attainers does take some thought as it is easy to fall into the trap of just giving these students extra tasks to do which will ultimately result in demotivation and lack of stretch. Such a missed opportunity.

These students could be our future leaders with successful careers beckoning so it is our duty to allow these students to progress and develop at a rate that is effective and applicable for their level of learning.

There are various methods and approaches that we can adopt to ensure that we are including our higher attainers, starting with our vocabulary. Frequently, we try to simplify or “dumb down” explanations to student/child level but for our higher attainers it is important that we challenge them through our own vocabulary and therefore widening their own language use.

When we use more complex dialogue, conversing with our students as mature adults, this allows our students to broaden their own repertoire as well as gain confidence in using more sophisticated language.

In addition, we need to consider our questioning styles. Closed questions are the general adopted method that we as teachers, use to assess understanding or address behaviour issues, and yes, closed questions are a great place to start our lessons, building on from prior learning.

Here is also an opportunity to extend to open questions; targeting our higher attainers towards higher order questions that require deeper thought and analysis – exactly what we need them to be doing to nurture their skills.

Another aspect to consider when preparing subject and lesson content, is to never assume what students do or don’t know. Our higher achievers may surprise you in that they already have prior knowledge in a subject that they take an interest with and in fact may be able to teach us a thing or two about the topic! Again, we can utilise this and stretch them by encouraging these students to present to others what they do already know thus developing their oracy and presentation skills and equally stretching their skills.

Too often our higher achievers get left by the wayside in lessons and we settle for less than they are actually capable of. We are doing them a disservice by not providing opportunities for them and having a fixed mindset. Instead, have a growth mindset and teach to the top end of your class. Encourage wider reading and more advanced reading to these students and most of all give these higher attainers the chance to grow and become the success that is within them.

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