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22 Powerful Closure Activities

December 15, 2015

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Photo credit: Stephen Luke via flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Too many university supervisors and administrators criticize the absence of lesson closure, a
dubious assessment practice likely caused by the improper use of Madeline Hunter’s lesson plan
model (PDF) as a de facto checklist of eight mandatory teaching practices -- anticipatory set,
objective and purpose, input, modeling, checking for understanding, guided practice,
independent practice, and closure -- a custom that Hunter decried in 1985 (PDF). Although it
offers multiple benefits, please don't view closure as a professional must-do.

What Is Closure?

Closure is the activity that ends a lesson and creates a lasting impression, a phenomenon that
Colorado State University professor Rod Lucero calls the recency effect.

Teachers use closure to:

 Check for understanding and inform subsequent instruction

 Emphasize key information
 Tie up loose ends
 Correct misunderstandings

Students find closure helpful for:

 Summarizing, reviewing, and demonstrating their understanding of major points

 Consolidating and internalizing key information
 Linking lesson ideas to a conceptual framework and/or previously-learned knowledge
 Transferring ideas to new situations

Like contracting your bicep at the top of a dumbbell curl, closure squeezes an extra oomph into a
lesson. See my favorite closure strategies below!

Creative Closure Activities

1. Snowstorm

Students write down what they learned on a piece of scratch paper and wad it up. Given a signal,
they throw their paper snowballs in the air. Then each learner picks up a nearby response and
reads it aloud.

2. High-Five Hustle

Ask students to stand up, raise their hands and high-five a peer -- their short-term hustle buddy.
When there are no hands left, ask a question for them to discuss. Solicit answers. Then play "Do
the Hustle" as a signal for them to raise their hands and high-five a different partner for the next
question. (Source: Gretchen Bridgers)

3. Parent Hotline

Give students an interesting question about the lesson without further discussion. Email their
guardians the answer so that the topic can be discussed over dinner.

4. Two-Dollar Summary
Kids write a two-dollar (or more) summary of the lesson. Each word is worth ten cents. For extra
scaffolding, ask students to include specific words in their statement. (Source (PDF): Ann Lewis
and Aleta Thompson)

5. Paper Slide

On paper, small groups sketch and write what they learned. Then team representatives line up
and, one and a time, slide their work under a video camera while quickly summarizing what was
learned. The camera doesn't stop recording until each representative has completed his or her
summary.

6. DJ Summary

Learners write what they learned in the form of a favorite song. Offer extra praise if they sing.

7. Gallery Walk

On chart paper, small groups of students write and draw what they learned. After the completed
works are attached to the classroom walls, others students affix Stickies to the posters to extend
on the ideas, add questions, or offer praise.

8. Sequence It

Students can quickly create timelines with Timetoast to represent the sequence of a plot or
historical events.

9. Low-Stakes Quizzes

Give a short quiz using technologies like Socrative, BubbleSheet, GoSoapBox, or Google Forms.
Alternatively, have students write down three quiz questions (to ask at the beginning of the next
class).

10. Cover It

Have kids sketch a book cover. The title is the class topic. The author is the student. A short
celebrity endorsement or blurb should summarize and articulate the lesson's benefits.

11. Question Stems

Have students write questions about the lesson on cards, using question stems framed around
Bloom's Taxonomy. Have students exchange cards and answer the question they have acquired.

12. So What?

Kids answer the following prompts:

  What takeaways from the lesson will be important to know three years from now?
 Why?

13. Dramatize It

Have students dramatize a real-life application of a skill.

14. Beat the Clock

Ask a question. Give students ten seconds to confer with peers before you call on a random
student to answer. Repeat.

15. Find a First-Grade Student

Have kids orally describe a concept, procedure, or skill in terms so simple that a child in first
grade would get it.

16. Review It

Direct kids to raise their hands if they can answer your questions. Classmates agree (thumbs up)
or disagree (thumbs down) with the response.

17. CliffsNotes, Jr.

Have kids create a cheat sheet of information that would be useful for a quiz on the day's topic.
(Source (PDF): Ann Sipe, "40 Ways to Leave a Lesson")

18. Students I Learned From the Most

Kids write notes to peers describing what they learned from them during class discussions.

19. Elevator Pitch

Ask students to summarize the main idea in under 60 seconds to another student acting as a well-
known personality who works in your discipline. After summarizing, students should identify
why the famous person might find the idea significant.

20. Simile Me

Have students complete the following sentence: "The [concept, skill, word] is like _______
because _______."

21. Exit Ticket Folder

Ask students to write their name, what they learned, and any lingering questions on a blank card
or "ticket." Before they leave class, direct them to deposit their exit tickets in a folder or bin
labeled either "Got It," "More Practice, Please," or "I Need Some Help!" -- whichever label best
represents their relationship to the day's content. (Source: Erika Savage)

22. Out-the-Door Activity

After writing down the learning outcome, ask students to take a card, circle one of the following
options, and return the card to you before they leave:

 Stop (I'm totally confused.)

 Go (I'm ready to move on.)
 Proceed with caution (I could use some clarification on . . .)

Download the PDF cards for this exercise. (Source: Eduscapes)

These 22 strategies can be effectively altered or blended. And they are great opportunities to
correct, clarify, and celebrate.

Do you use a closure activity that's not on this list? Please share it in the comments.

Todd Finley's Profile

Was this useful? Sign in to vote! (18)
Learn More About Teaching Strategies

The 8 Minutes That Matter Most



Exit Tickets: Checking for Understanding

2 Research-Tested Learning Strategies

 

Holly Murphy
I use Snowball with an add on. I have a snowball jar and after the snow ball fight, the students
put the snowballs in the jar. Every once in a awhile we have a snowstorm which helps for
review. I only have a couple of students at a time, and I only see them 2 times a week. The kids
love it!
Like · Reply · Likes: 4 · 42 days ago
Show more

Willie Muñoz
Ali Piersol, CHECK OUT THIS ARTICLE AND SITE. EDUTOPIA HAS EXCELLENT
ARTICLES WITH MANY IDEAS I THINK YOU WOULD FIND USEFUL AS YOU BEGIN
YOUR CAREER TEACHING AND BEING A LIFELONG LEARNER! HAVE A GREAT
FIRST WEEK! YOUR MOM WOULD BE SO PROUD OF YOU MISS PIERSOL!
Like · Reply · 42 days ago

Lisa Graham
Shana Brown - I am not crazy about all of these ideas, but some were interesting.
Like · Reply · 42 days ago
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Conversations on Edutopia (9) Sign in or register to comment

Posted 12/16/2015 5:15pm
kschuelke

I follow direct instruction with an exit slip that says "My question [insert question here]" and
then "Your answer (blank lines for student to fill in)." "My question" is always conceptual, the
one big idea I want them to grab hold of that day. It is also posted on the white board during
instruction. On the back of the paper, students put a number from 1 - 5 to indicate how confident
they feel about their grasp of that one question. The first student done and correct collects them
in a folder for that period, and I can analyze the entire class' data as the next class is coming in.

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Posted 12/17/2015 1:10pm

Patti Abney

What an awesome list of ideas to use!

Sign in to vote!(1)

Posted 12/17/2015 1:12pm

Patti Abney

Hope to use some in group

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Posted 12/23/2015 10:01am
SenorDPatterson

I have an activity that is similar to #21 and #22 and I call it the "Stoplight." On the door frame I
have a red light, yellow light and green light, all made out of paper. (I am a Spanish teacher.)

The green light says "!Estoy listo!" (I am ready!), which represents "go" or "let's move on."
The yellow light says "Un momento. No estoy seguro." (One moment. I am not sure.), which
represents proceed with caution / slow down.
The red light says "!Para! No estoy listo." (Stop! I am not ready.), which represents we need to
stop and review/discuss.

I give the students a post-it note and they can simply write their name (if they wish), their
question(s), comments or a specific piece(s) they understand or don't understand. Then as they
walk out the door, they slap their post-it note on the color of the stoplight that fits their
feeling/understanding of the concept(s).

By seeing the post-it notes on the stoplight, I can quickly gauge how the class as a whole felt
about the lesson as the next class is coming in. I can then start reflecting/preparing for tomorrow
based on where the post-it notes are at (move on, review, that lesson went worse/better than I
thought, etc). Then when I have time later I can actually read through the post-it notes to better
gauge where the students are at and finalize how to proceed based on comments & questions.

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Posted 12/30/2015 12:52am

judyd123

This a good list. I want to try Beat the Clock. This would be great for kindergarten.

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Posted 1/6/2016 5:49am
Mel

These are great ideas to use for lesson closure. I use the "review it" with my kindergarten
students.

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Posted 1/22/2016 12:07pm

JoHanna Simko

I love this Todd ! 2 points. 1~ many of the structures for active learning you delineate here can
be used at any point during the lesson, for example, we just began a session with the snowballs,
so I would push your readers to think about how to use these practices through out their lessons.
2~ How can we support use of these strategies when we are engaging teachers in professional
learning?

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Posted 2/27/2016 3:21am

Patrick Boer

For the quizzes, you can also use Kahoot. The competitive element makes my students ask for it
almost every lesson and it's a great way to quickly notices misconception if you phrased the
questions and answers correctly.
Sign in to vote!

Posted 6/1/2016 11:05pm

Dina
Math and Computer Science Teacher

I especially liked your comments on lesson closure. I believe my students are pretty good at
working together and discovering math, but I have rarely used closure activities in any sort of
meaningful way. I recently finished reading a book on Brain-Based learning by David Sousa, and
in this book, he states that giving students an opportunity to reflect etc. at the end of the lesson
facilitates retention of the information since this reflective process gives the brain time to move
the lessons from short-term to long-term memory. I definitely plan to try out some of your lesson
closure ideas and, in fact, plan to make this my individual performance goal for next year ( I
would like to make it an action research project).

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