Ideally, closure activities create powerful learning effects at the tail-end of the class, something that will reverberate for hours after the lesson is over, something a little sticky.
The defining element of the closure activity is that which your students will soon come to realize: class isn’t over until it has taken place. The bonus added-value factor, of course, is this: as they come to realize that the closure activity is an essential part of the overall lesson, your students are more likely to think twice before leaving early!
Closure activities also help define both your teaching agenda and the intended learning progression, weaving today's lesson with yesterday's while providing a look ahead at what tomorrow's will bring. As a deliberate part of your planning process, these activities summarize the current lesson, provide it context, and build anticipation for the next. Properly implemented, they will help you establish and maintain course momentum.
Reinforcing what students have learned, closure activities also serve as an assessment tool with which to evaluate your students retention level—Did they get it?—as well as your own effectiveness.
Including a closure activity with a SET Activity in every lesson is an effective classroom management strategy. It establishes a clear classroom framework for your students, with a clearly delineated and articulated BEGINNING and END, a format they will come to expect and on which they can depend.
Powerful
Closure Activities
These activities have been designed to get
the best out of the last minutes of your class and your students as well. I
decided to group the activities, so you know which one to use depending on what
you want to focus your closure on.
Take a look at them, apply them and enjoy
your future teaching experiences.
Activities
for Summarizing what the lesson has tried to achieve:
-
One-minute sentence: This activity can
be used to check summarize what the lesson was about. The teacher asks Ss to
write a sentence on a piece of paper describing what today’s lesson was about, they
exchange that ´piece of information with their partner and discuss about it (Ss
might have different idea of what the lesson was about) and at the end the
teacher takes the pieces of sentences home and checks them to see what the Ss
thought of the class
-
Snowstorm: Ss write down what they
learned on a piece of scratch paper and wad it up. Given a signal, they throw
their paper snowballs in the air. Then each learner picks up a nearby response
and reads it aloud.
-
The Important Thing: Ss write three
important ideas/things from the lesson today.
The important
things today are ___, ___, and ___, but the most important thing I learned
today is ___.
-
Word Splash: Ss are given a “splash” of
the key words from the lesson. They must write a few meaningful sentences
(summarize the learning) using these words
-
5-3-1 (alone, pair, group): Write a
question/topic, Ss brainstorm 5 answers. Then they work in a pair to come up
with the 3 best. Then the pair joins with another pair to come up with the 1
most important.
Activities
for Checking understanding:
- Beat the Clock: Ask a question (vocabulary, grammar, functions, etc). Give students ten seconds to confer with peers before you call on a random student to answer. Repeat.
- Review it: Direct Ss to raise their hands if they can answer your questions. Classmates agree (thumbs up) or disagree (thumbs down) with the response.
-
Name the word: Divide the class into groups of five Ss. Have one student
from each group comes to the front of the room and show them a word. Then these
Ss return to the group and use a nonsense word (beep) in place of the chosen
one in a short dialogue. For example, if the word is book, the
person might say, I bring my "beep" to school every day. I
like to read mystery "beep" at home. I go to the library to find
"beep." The first team to guess the meaning of
"beep" wins the point.
-
Tell your partner: Ss work in pairs (one
facing the other), one will talk and the other one will listen. The T asks a
question and Ss work on the answers in pairs:
Example:
· What is the opposite
of boring? (vocabulary)
· What is the past tense
of ride? (grammar)
· How do you spell library?
(spelling)
· When is Remembrance Day in
Canada? (culture)
· What another way to
say good-bye? (conversational discourse)
-
Odd one out: Divide the Ss up into small groups. Tell the Ss that you will
read a list of four words. The should find the word that does not belong and
say why. One example would be a list of words composed of the following:
doctor, architect, office, and lawyer. The word office is not
an occupation, so students should choose this word. T has to use words Ss have learned during the lesson.
Activities
for Assessing student’ learning:
-
Exit ticket: This is an activity for
assessing the students’ overall learning during the class. The teacher asks Ss
to get a piece of paper and write their names on them. Then the teacher asks a
couple of questions for the Ss to answer or T / F sentences, the Ss answer the
questions of mark T / F and hand in the paper as they leave the class. This
serves as a way to assess the day’s learning.
-
Check list: The T prepares a check list
of the objectives of the class and hands in
a copy to every student, these Ss check what they feel confident about
after the lesson and return the check list to the T.
-
My learning: This is similar to the
check list but students rank sentences the T has previously prepared as goals
for the class. Ss rank from 1 to 5 the sentences.
Example:
A. I totally understand everything in this
class.
B. Reading the textbook really helps me
understand.
C. Listening in class is easy for me and
helps me.
D. I put a lot of effort into this class.
E. Being able to talk about the ideas with
others helps me.
F. Acting things out helps me learn things.
I really hope this helps and if you have any question, do not hesitate to drop me a line and I will try my best to answer.
Thank you for stopping by and reading this.
Happy teaching!
Erick Maguiño Matusaki
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