Summary
Strategic lesson closures offer a myriad of advantages, including guiding students in meaningful reflection, consolidating their comprehension, fostering real-world connections, bolstering memory retention, and equipping them with the skills for self-assessment and constructive feedback.
Essential Question
What values can closure bring to a lesson?
Snapshot
Engage
Participants reflect on the importance of closure and generate ideas for closing lessons.
Explore
Participants review a collection of closing strategies and consider which ones would be best in three different scenarios.
Explain
Participants choose a strategy from the collection to practice using while they read an article about lesson closure.
Extend
Participants use the exercise activity Note Catcher to take notes on all of the strategies discussed in today’s activities and reflect on how they might use some going forward.
Evaluate
Participants reflect on what they learned using the Rose, Bud, and Thorn strategy and return to their notes from the “Engage” section to see how today’s learning has changed their understanding.
Materials List
Presentation Slides (attached)
Lesson Closure Reading (attached)
Exit Strategies Note Catcher (attached)
Sticky Notes
Learning Goals
Examine the purpose of closure strategies
Explore various closure strategies that can be used across content areas
Engage
15 Minute(s)
Display slide 3 with the Preflection questions:
Why are closure strategies important to the learning process?
What ideas do you have for closure strategies?
Have participants write their answers on a sticky note and keep it handy. Let them know we will come back to them at the end of the session.
Then share the objectives and essential question on slides 4 and 5.
Explore
25 Minute(s)
In the next activity, we will look at three different scenarios and discuss the values of different closure strategies in each of them.
Using slide 6, direct participants to find the Exit Strategies Collection in LEARN. Provide a few minutes for them to look at titles of each one before introducing the scenarios and then begin to introduce the scenarios.
Display slide 7. Read Scenario 1 aloud and ask participants to find a strategy in the collection they could use to meet this need. After a couple of minutes, have them share what they found with an Elbow Partner. Then ask for pairs to share what they discussed with the whole group.
Follow this format for the next two scenarios on slides 8 and 9. Each scenario asks participants to think a little more deeply about the intention of the closure strategy and how to meet it. Scenario 2 asks them to find something that checks for understanding and leads students into the next day. Scenario 3 is looking for something that checks for understanding and has students relating their learning to their own experience or the broader world.
Explain
25 Minute(s)
Display slide 10 and go over the instructions. Participants will look at the Exit Strategies Collection again, and this time, choose one strategy they will test themselves to conclude the Lesson Closure Reading.
Next, hand out the Lesson Closure Reading excerpt, one per participant. Allow participants time to read and test their strategies. Then, ask participants to first share with an Elbow Partner how their strategy worked for them and what they took away from the reading while using it. Then ask if anyone would like to share with the whole group.
Extend
30 Minute(s)
Display slide 11 and go over all of the strategies you’ve discussed and experienced in this session. This will look different depending on participants’ focus per scenario and the parts they tried with the reading
Hand out the Exit Strategies Note Catcher and provide a few moments for everyone to reflect and take notes, completing the following:
Write the title of the strategy.
Write how you saw it used today.
Write an idea for how you would use it in your classroom.
Evaluate
15 Minute(s)
Display slide 12 and provide participants time to access the Padlet (or sticky notes for a paper version) for the Rose, Bud, and Thorn activity.
Take a few minutes for everyone to reflect on the prompts and respond to each of the following:
Rose: Successes you’ve had with closing strategies.
Bud: Something you’re looking forward to trying now that you’ve learned more about closing strategies.
Thorn: What has been an obstacle for effective lesson closure for you so far?
Divide into three groups, one for each prompt. Have each group discuss the posts under their prompt and summarize what they have discussed for the whole room.
Then move to slide 13 and have the same three groups look again at the answers they wrote for the Preflection questions. Ask them to share how they feel their responses have changed after participating in this professional learning activity.
Have each group share a summary of their discussion for the whole group.
Research Rationale
Strategic lesson closures offer a myriad of advantages, including guiding students in meaningful reflection, consolidating their comprehension, fostering real-world connections, bolstering memory retention, and equipping them with the skills for self-assessment and constructive feedback (Ganske, 2017).
Resources
Ganske, K. (2017). Lesson closure: An important piece of the student learning puzzle. The Reading Teacher, 71(1), 95–100.
K20 Center. (n.d.). Elbow partner. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/116
K20 Center. (n.d.). Exit strategies. Collections. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/collection/3334
K20 Center. (n.d.). Padlet. Tech Tool. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/1077
K20 Center. (n.d.). Preflections. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/191
K20 Center. (n.d.). Rose, bud, and thorn. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/2224