It goes without saying that to have a productive lesson, teachers should start it with an interesting and effective warm — up. But what about ending the lesson as effectively as it has been started? The end of the lesson is equally important as its beginning. If you end a lesson just at the last exercise saying goodbye, your students will probably have the feeling that something is not completely finished. Hence, being a teacher requires to be creative and think of useful ways of ending your lesson.
Here we offer some ideas on effective end of the lesson, that may come in handy.
Feedback (all levels)
Asking your students to give a feedback may really turn out to be a useful way of finishing the lesson. It gives them an opportunity to think over the learnt material, to sum up, and to share their opinion.
- Students might complete the sentences:
- If you work with a group, you can choose several students and ask them to talk about what they learnt during the lesson, what was interesting for them, what part they liked most. They can also give a brief summary of a story they read or listened to. If you studied “Past Simple” or “be going to”, you can ask them to tell their classmates what they did yesterday or what they are going to do after the classes.
- To develop your kids’ and teenagers’ critical thinking you can use pair/share activity at the end of the lesson. Ask your students to tell the person next to them things they have learnt today, then the groups report out.
Lesson summary
There are several ways how you and your students can make a summary of the lesson:
- drawing a web or mind map about the lesson’s content (all levels)
- Snowstorm (beginner — pre — intermediate, kids, teenagers)
Ask your students to write down what they have learnt on a piece of paper, wrap it and make a snowball. Give them a signal to throw their paper snowballs in the air. Then they pick up nearby snowballs and read them aloud.
- DJ Summary (elementary — intermediate, teenagers)
Students write what they have learnt in the form of a song. They can either use the music of their favorite song, or compose a new one.
- Write an e-mail (elementary — upper — intermediate)
Give your students some 3 minutes and ask them to write an e-mail to their friend. The subject of the e-mail should correspond to the learnt material. If they have just learnt “be going to” or “Present Continuous” for future plans, ask your students to write an e-mail to their friends telling them about their future plans, plans for next weekend or holiday. If you have discussed personality adjectives, they can tell about their classmates, friends, colleagues, etc. Then check their e-mails asking your students to pay their attention to their mistakes.
- Fishbowl
Ask students to write a question on a paper about today’s topic. Collect all the papers and put them in a bowl/hat. Ask one person to pick one paper. Let him/her read out and answer the question.
Corrections (all levels)
Delayed error correction can be an effective way of finishing your lesson. When your students make mistakes in speech, write them on a piece of paper, or on the board, and ask them to correct their own mistakes at the end of the lesson. If they are not able to do it themselves, you can give them some hints. For example:
- He do not go to the gym every day.
What tense form is it?
What is the subject?
What do we use in negative Present Simple sentences, if the subject is he/she/ it?
- These phobias is not good for their jobs.
What is the subject of the sentence?
Is it singular or plural?
Say Goodbye with a song (preschool and primary students)
The best way to wrap up a lesson with primary school learners is with a goodbye song using a puppet. This will leave a positive impact on your kids and they will look forward to their next lesson.
Another interesting way of saying goodbye to your kids is with a puppet. The puppet may “ask” them questions about the lesson or have a short role-play dialogue based on the given material. They can also ask the children to tell what the lesson was about, what they learnt and whether they liked the lesson.
Exit Ticket (preschool and primary students)
This is the strategy where students give you something as they exit the door. This can be done in many different ways:
- Ask the students to tell you one or two new vocabulary words they have learned from your class today.
- Write questions or vocabulary words on 10 sticky notes and hide them under random desks. Students who sit where the post-it notes are will answer the questions before leaving the room.
What techniques do you use at the end of the lesson? Leave your comments below.
Thank you for sharing