Finishing Class Strong With Optimistic Closures

 

Source: https://www.edutopia.org/video/finishing-class-strong-optimistic-closures

Finishing Class Strong With Optimistic Closures

The best closing activities use social and emotional practices to reinforce the day’s lessons, so students leave feeling confident—and competent—on their learning journey.

September 16, 2021

Teacher:  An optimistic closure is the way to end a lesson or class that reflects on the day’s learning or identifies next steps. It can build a shared sense of accomplishment while boosting appreciation for being together in strengthening classroom community. The best closing activities build students’ confidence and confidence on their learning journey, sharpening meta-cognition as essential academic mindsets at the same time as social and emotional skills are honed. When you don’t have a lot of time but want a meaningful wrap-up, this activity gives you a sense of the group and let’s every student contribute in just a few minutes. Go around a circle of students and ask them to respond to a prompt like what’s one word to describe how you’re feeling about the day, but what’s one word that stands out to you from our lesson. You could even write a word cloud on the board while students share and then do a quick debrief while everyone’s still in a circle to see where the class landed as a whole. 

Teacher:  Closing the day with the simple question like, what are you still curious about can help you quickly get a handle on whether students are getting the material you’re teaching. This also gives students an opportunity to reflect on their learning, you can have them jot down their answer on a piece of paper and then share with their classmates in small groups, or you can just collect all the slips of paper and read through them as you plan for your next set of lessons. Another way to check for understanding is to try a human bar graph. The song gets students up and moving and can leave them feeling energized at the end of class. Prepare ahead by labelling points along the line drawn on the floor or cross a wall that show different levels of mastery like, I’m confused, I’m okay, I got this. Ask students to stand where they feel most comfortable along the line. This exercise requires a certain level of vulnerability, so it’s best to try it once you built some trust in the room. Or use sticky notes, students can post either anonymously or with their name.

Teacher:  To help build classroom community and culture on a daily basis, try this activity. Students identify either an appreciation they have for someone, an apology, or an ah-ha lightbulb moment from the day. With the whole class standing in a circle kick things up by modeling with your own answer. Then ask students to volunteer to share their apology, appreciation, or ah-ha with the group. As student are working on a long-term project, this activity is a great way to set an action-oriented plan. It also helps develop their self-awareness about what they need to do while encouraging themselves self-management. Start by having students jot down their next steps in their notebooks, this helps track their to-dos and keeps them accountable. You can pair students up with a partner or breakup everyone into small groups to share their plans. In this way, you’re able to end your time together by looking ahead.