LESSON CLOSURE ACTIVITIES

LESSON EXAMPLE
You’re stuck here Depending on time, this is great for a 90-30 second gap before dismissal. Have the
until… students discuss the day’s vocabulary and then they have to define one word in their
own words, to you, before they go out the door. If they are having difficulty, have
them step to the side and listen to several other students and then try again. This
should be framed in good humor, not in a punitive way.

Daily Dozen Student chooses two questions from a generic list to respond to about the day’s
lesson.
1. The thing that made the most sense to me today was…
2. One thing that I just don’t understand is…
3. When someone asks me what I did in math today, I can say…
4. One thing I would like more information about is…
5. I need more examples of…
6. I enjoyed…
7. The most important concept that we discussed today was…
8. Today’s class would have been better if we had…
9. I was confused by…
10. The thing we did in class today that best fit my learning style was…
11. The one thing the teacher did today that best fit my learning style was…
12. The one thing the teacher did today that did not work well for me was…
13. This point is really clear…
14. One thing that squares with things I already know is…
15. An idea that is still going around in my head is…

Thumbs Up / Thumbs Pose some questions that can be answered thumbs up/down/sideways, ask for
Down explanation of the decisions.

“What am I?” Have students construct clues (riddles) about the key terms and quiz partners or the
room.

Jeopardy Teacher gives answer. Students create a question. This works well with dry erase
boards.

Be the Teacher Students present three key ideas they think everyone should have learned.

I Care Why? Students explain relevancy of the concept to their life or how they might use it.

Sell It To Us Write a jingle that explains the main idea of the lesson.

Key Words Select five key words used in the lesson. Ask the students to try to identify these
words and write them down. Compare our key words to the students’ key words to
see if they were able to identify the key ideas/concepts of the lesson.
Whip Around Students quickly and verbally share one thing they learned in the class today. You can
have them toss a ball from one to another or just have volunteers. (Caveat - you have
to have a safe, trusting environment. I have seen this done where kids chose others
based on their perception that the student won’t have anything to say.) OR Ask a
question then call on each student, in turn for an answer. Students always have the
right to say ‘I pass’.

3-2-1 3 things they learned, 2 things they have a question about, 1 thing they want the
instructor to know - post-its, index cards or whatever.

Fishbowl Student writes one question they have about the topic of the current lesson. This can
be something for which they know the answer or for which they want an answer.
Form an inner and outer circle. Share question with the person in front of you to see if
they know the answer, switch who is asking question, if time rotate to a new partner.

Three W’s Students discuss or write:

Pair/Share Tell the person next to you 2 (3,4,5,…) things you have learned today, then the group’s
report out. Variation of this is Think/Write/Pair/Share

Quick doodles Doodle Draw two or three concepts presented in the lesson may include words or numbers.

Postcard Students are given an index card and they write a postcard to their parents explaining
the day’s lesson.

It fits where? Students create a ‘timeline’ of the concepts taught (sequence the concepts) or explain
a connection to something else they know.

Where are we going? Students predict the topic of tomorrow’s lesson. Be sure to refer to the predictions
the next day as either an opener or in closure.

Commercial Students write a 1-2 minute commercial to use at home when asked, ‘What happened
in math today?’

4 box synectics Synectics connect unrelated ideas through metaphor. Students have a sheet with four
boxes. In each box is a stem.
• Solving equations is like eating an orange because… or
• Solving equations is like driving a car because…

So what’s up with…? Students raise questions about something they either were unsure about or need
clarification. Can be done orally or written. combine with Pair/Share or other small
group for immediate processing or with exit slips/ticket out the door.
Numbered heads Students in groups of up to five are numbered sequentially. As a group they create a
together list of 3-5 things learned in the lesson and then the teacher calls one number from
each group to report to the class something they learned.

Exit Slips Students are provided with a slip of paper, often a half page with a question or two for
them to answer just prior to exiting the classroom.
• The exit slips are generally anonymous.
• Exit slips usually include questions that relate to strengths and weaknesses of
the class, most inspiring points or confusing points from the previous lesson, or
feedback to the teacher as to what is working, or where the students would
like to go next within the class.
• Asks the student to self-rate their understanding and write down one thing
they would like to know more about.

Lesson closing can be one or some combination of the purposes above. It should be a meaningful end to the
lesson.
• Reviewing the key points of the lesson.
• Giving students opportunities to draw conclusions from the lesson.
• Describing when the students can use this new information.
• Previewing future lessons.
• Demonstrating student’s problem-solving process.
• Exhibiting student learning.
• Creating a smooth transition from one lesson to the next lesson.
• Today, we did this…tomorrow we will continue by doing that…
• Keep in mind that not every objective, every day, needs to have both a declarative (what you know)
and procedural (what you can do) element. Consider flipping the order of introducing the content
objective and activating prior knowledge.