The last ten minutes of a lesson can be fun and motivating. Ending it properly can motivate the students and improve your classroom management.
Just when students think that the lesson is about to finish and you might think that they are not listening, you need to keep them on their toes and make sure that the end of the lesson is just as interesting and challenging as its beginning.
When you are able to match the skills to the last ten minutes of the lesson, your skills improve in lesson planning and your students’ confidence in their abilities increases as they begin to understand that they now know more. Every lesson needs different activities, and it’s never too late to improve your lesson plan skills.
So what factors should you first consider?
*Make sure the activity is challenging but not too easy or too hard.
*Make sure the activity is age appropriate.
*Keep the activity within the ten minute period.
*Will you need special visual aids or special equipment?
*Does the activity actually give the lesson a sense of closure?
*How can I vary this activity?
Here are some suggestions for post lesson ideas. They can of course, be adapted to suit your classes.
1.Ask students to write down three most important things they learned from the lesson or from the unit.
2. Ask students to write down one thing that they enjoyed and one thing that could be improved. You could then have a feedback session with the entire class.
3. Divide the class into two teams and have a trivia game based what you have just taught.
4. Blackboard Bingo. This can be used for almost anything from words to numbers.
5. Student presentations. Students volunteer personal information. (It’s a good idea to start the ball rolling by being the first volunteer and then getting the class to ask you questions)
6. Flashcards. Again, this can be used for anything – dates, spellings, words in a foreign or second language.
7. Writing about a subject. Weaker students can be given sentence stems like: "My favorite thing is...". Share in pairs, group and/or with the whole class.
You can also review your textbok if you want to keep to the safe side in the beginning. Planning like this on a regular basis will help you think or look for more creative ideas for ending a lesson.
Consider your lesson endings. Students are more likely to participate when the end of a lesson speaks to them.
So try out different lesson endings and see how students collaborate. You just might be surprised and join the conversation and share your experiences.
