麻豆传媒入口

When you鈥檝e got a few minutes left before the period ends, it鈥檚 only normal to wonder: Do my students really understand what we covered? Do they remember what we started with, as well as what we just discussed?

While cleaning up and going over homework assignments often take up those final moments of class time, effective closing activities allow you to make better use of them by checking for understanding, correcting misunderstandings, and putting a little fun into the process to motivate your students to make sense of what they鈥檝e just learned. 

Closing activities don鈥檛 need to happen every day, and they don鈥檛 always require lots of advanced planning. They can occur at the end of a chapter, or even at the end of a large learning unit, and can also take various forms鈥攊ncorporating movement, technology, and even components of social and emotional learning to build a stronger classroom community. 

Here are 10 creative and fun closing activities we sourced from experienced teachers that you can try in your classroom. 

1. Two-Dollar Summary: Ask students to write a of the lesson they鈥檝e just learned. Each word they use is worth 10 cents. For extra scaffolding, ask students to include specific words in their statement. For a twist on this, ask students to explain something as if they were teaching it to a first grade student. This will also push them to simplify complex ideas for themselves and therefore understand them better. 

2. Clear or Cloudy: This is a neat example of an exit ticket, asking students to identify what is clear about what they鈥檝e learned (what they understand) and what is cloudy (what they鈥檙e having trouble understanding). Try creating a simple 鈥淐lear or Cloudy鈥� handout鈥攍ike this one from 鈥攖hat students can use to record something clear and something cloudy before turning it in on their way out. 

3. Appreciation, Apology, Aha!: This activity, practiced by high school teacher Aukeem Ballard at Summit Public Schools in Redwood, California, gathers students in a circle to reflect on their day. Students can either identify something they鈥檝e appreciated that day, an apology they鈥檇 like to deliver, or an aha moment they鈥檝e experienced during the course of the day. The activity can surface important insights about lessons (particularly during aha moments) and can also help build stronger social bonds in the classroom. 

4. Create News 鈥淗eadlines鈥� or 鈥淪ix-word Summaries鈥�: Pair students off and tell them to imagine that summarize what they鈥檝e learned. Challenge each pair to write at least two headlines, then come back together to review the headlines. Alternatively, you can do this as an entire class activity, writing the headlines suggested by students on your whiteboard. 

For a different spin on this, try educator Sarah Frisby Cook鈥檚 鈥渟ix-word summary鈥� of the most important idea or concept. On, Cook told 麻豆传媒入口 that because students are limited in word choice, 鈥渢hey really have to think about what is most crucial to say.鈥澛�

5. Traffic Light: On, an educator shared that they've affixed a picture of a traffic light on the door as a quick check for understanding at the end of a lesson. Before students leave the room, they take sticky notes and write one thing they learned in the lesson and place it on the green light, one thing they鈥檙e still mulling over and place it on yellow light, and one thing they鈥檙e struggling to understand and place it on the red light. The activity takes a minute to do, and after students leave, teachers can easily discover important insights about their students鈥� grasp of the material at hand.聽

6. Video Journals: Educator uses the free app to get students creating and sharing video journals describing what they鈥檝e learned. Because this can take a little time to create, this strategy might be best suited as a wrap-up activity at the end of a unit. The videos are playful and fun, and can easily be posted to classroom platforms like Seesaw. 

7. Rock, Paper, Scissors: Shannon Kenyon flips the familiar game rock, paper, scissors on its head to create a simple reflection students can use to think deeply鈥攁nd critically鈥攁bout the content they鈥檙e learning. The 鈥渞ock鈥� of the content asks students to identify the hardest part, the 鈥減aper鈥� asks them to distill the main idea of a topic, and the 鈥渟cissors鈥� asks them to think about less important details that they might discard as they consolidate their learning. 

8. Quiz the Next Class: gets her students to use the free platform Kahoot! to come up with quiz questions and multiple choice answers to give to their peers studying the same material in other classes. Recent research suggests that generating good questions promotes deeper engagement with content and improves retention. When a person formulates a question, 鈥淥ne has to reflect what one has learned and how an appropriate knowledge question can be inferred from this knowledge,鈥� University of Kassel researcher Mirjam Ebersbach told 麻豆传媒入口. 

9. Make Your Classroom a Beach: This activity will get students out of their seats and sharing with the whole class. Educator that she writes reflective questions on a beach ball using dry erase markers. Questions might include things like: 鈥淲hat is one thing you learned during today鈥檚 lesson?鈥� or 鈥淲hat was challenging about today鈥檚 lesson?鈥�

As the ball bounces around the room, you can come up with a mechanism for deciding which question they have to answer out loud鈥攕uch as the question their left thumb is touching, or the very first question they see. Use the responses to generate further discussion about the day鈥檚 lesson.

10. Optimistic Closures: These are simple ways to get students reflecting on the day鈥檚 learning, identifying next steps, and strengthening their classroom community at the same time. Try the One Word Share, which asks students to stand in a circle and respond to a prompt like, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 one word to describe how you鈥檙e feeling about the day?鈥� or 鈥淲hat鈥檚 one word that stands out to you from our lesson?鈥� Capture responses in a word cloud and do a quick debrief to see where the class landed. 

The Human Bar Graph is another twist that gets students moving. Label points along a line drawn on the floor or across a wall that show different levels of mastery: I鈥檓 confused, I鈥檓 okay, I got this. Ask students to stand where they feel most comfortable. This exercise requires a certain level of vulnerability, so it鈥檚 best to try it once you built some trust with students.