Don’t Get Beaten by the Bell
I feel that every teacher has had the experience—more than once—of rushing to complete the lesson after the bell has rung or recess has begun. You need those extra two or three minutes to quickly complete the lesson as planned, before shouting out to a nearly empty classroom, “…and don’t forget to do the problems on page 36 for homework!”
It is understandable for a teacher to experience this once or twice in a career. Time slips by and the recess bell with the simultaneous shuffling of student’s feet under the desks, informs the teacher that his/her time is up. However, if this is more of a common occurrence, then your students may not be benefiting from the best practices a teacher can, and should, employ.
Completing a lesson without the benefit of a powerful and effective “closure activity” creates at least four negative consequences:
1. Once recess/lunch has started or the bell has rung, the minds of the students are thinking about anything…except your lesson! If you feel any serious learning is occurring while you teach after the bell has rung, you are mistaken. The minds and eyes of the students are on the clock and wondering how much of their precious time will be stolen by the meaningless background babble.
2. Students rightfully consider their recess, lunch, or sport time consecrated and belonging to them. I feel they are correct. Students need their sports and socialization time as an important component of their academic experience. Also, if you consider it important for students to arrive to class on time so that class can begin as scheduled, then teachers must reciprocate this respect by honoring the recess or lunch bell.
3. One of the incredibly important life and work skills is time management. Teachers, I believe, have an obligation to teach and model life skills such as time management, as much as they have a responsibility to teach reading and multiplication. One of the ways to accomplish this goal is to begin on time, stick to the deadlines you set, and to conclude your lesson on time. Even if this means having to stop in mid-sentence, you will be teaching the students something far more valuable than anything you were to tell them.
4. Leaving the two to three minutes necessary for a well-crafted “closure exercise” is like the fancy ribbon on the gift, or the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae! The closure activity removes the jarring jolt to the lessons abrupt end, and also allows the class to celebrate and review the day’s learning. As a bonus, research shows that an effective closure can enhance retention by up to 20%.
Teachers should plan a short but effective Closure activity in their planning stage. To make sure that you allow yourself the few minutes, you can set an alarm or timer to go off several minutes prior to the day’s lesson, or consider putting a student in charge of informing you when “it’s 11:50.” That will be sure to work! Once you train yourself to conclude the formal instructional component of the lesson with a few minutes to spare, you will find Closure an essential element of your instruction.
What are some ideas to be considered for a Closure activity?
* Once you feel the students can perform the intended learning objective, tell them how wonderful they have been in putting forth the effort to learn, and “celebrate the learning by applying our new skill/knowledge with one last task.” The students can then work alone or in pairs.
* Instruct the class by saying, “let’s write/think about/share one thing we can now do that we could not do as well before the lesson today”
* Say to the class, “let’s practice today’s learning by observing and assisting your partner in solving one problem or answering a question”
* Ask the students to create a question that may appear on the next test or assessment based on today’s learning.
*Simply ask the students to review the days stated lesson objective and to self-assess on a 1-5 scale, how well they feel they have achieved it. Ask students to hold up how many fingers, then congratulate the class on a job well done!
Note that each of the above ideas has three main components. It is based on applying the days learning, it engages all the students, and it can take just a minute or too. It also should conclude with a “feel good” statement acknowledging the student’s role in the days learning. What a better way to conclude the lesson just before the bell rings!
I am sure the more creative teachers can add many excellent Closure ideas to their repertoire.
