The last lesson before the summer holidays with adults

Summer is in the air and very soon most of the teachers will finally have some vacation after a hard and perhaps tiring school year. Of course, not all students stop learning in summer, but in case you are working with the ones who are going to take a break, you will need some ideas for your last lesson. Here we suggest several things that you can do with your adult learners before the summer holidays.

Your students’ decision

One thing you should keep in mind is that this lesson must not be tiring or time-consuming. The most crucial thing is to keep your students motivated throughout the summer and make them look forward to coming back to classes. Hence, you can take into consideration their preferences and ask your students to come up with several ideas for your last lesson a week before ending the year. When they have their own suggestions on what they would like to do in the last lesson, you can ask them why they want to do it and what the benefits of this lesson will be.

My students are really creative and they challenge themselves to come up with the best ideas, such as playing Mafia, watching their favourite films in English, sharing their opinions with other students, suggesting what to do in summer, talking about their holiday plans and role-playing travelling situations in pairs.

Make a “Can do” poster

Personally speaking, this is a must in my classes, because it shows students’ progress, makes them understand how much they have learnt and with that result, you can keep them motivated and expect them to come back to your classes after summer holidays. You can ask your students to think over the question: “What new things have I learnt this year?” — and come up with the answers. Encourage students to think back about what topics they have discussed, what new tenses and what vocabulary they have learnt. You can also make a mind-map with “What can I do?”.

Here is a sample created on Mindmeister.com:

Make a summer to-do-list with your students

Encourage your students to write a list of things they are going to do in summer, including activities that will help them to keep their English mood, such as English books to read in summer, movies to watch, museums to visit, must-see places to visit in their hometown and to film short vlogs about these places in English. To make it more visual, they can create an infographic on Piktochart.

Write a letter

Have your students write a letter to themselves reflecting on the past year and looking into the future. They can write about their achievements and goals they would like to meet next year. It would be really great if you, as a teacher, do the same. Then you can collect the letters and mail them just before the new school year starts to remind them about the aims they want to achieve.

Would you rather?

To spice up your last lesson you can ask students summertime “Would you rather” questions. This will bring lots of fun into your classroom and will help learners to exchange ideas explaining their choice thus practising their listening and speaking skills.

Hopefully, all the mentioned activities will be of great help while conducting the last lesson before the summer holidays. 

What activities do you do in your end of year lessons? Will you try any of these ideas?