Mini-Lesson: Wrap Up Ideas

Every good lesson includes a 3-5 minute wrap up activity.  Sometimes this is called closure.  The purposes of a wrap up include:

• reinforcing the major points to be learned
• providing time for processing what has been learned and students' organizing of the information
• encouraging individual and group reflection on the lesson
• giving the lesson concepts further meaning for your students by connecting to present day issues and/or past units of study
• teacher assessment of student learning (did they get it?  what questions do they still have?)

Here are some ideas for lesson wrap-ups:

• ask students to fill out a "ticket to leave" in which they write 2 things they learned in the lesson (or variation); can also use footprint shapes for students to record what lessons they are "walking away with"
• ball toss:  write questions on a beach ball ball and toss it to students. whoever catches the ball must answer one of the questions on the ball.  can also use a ball without writing and just ask the questions orally

Questions might include

I learned...
I'm beginning to wonder...
I have a question about...
I'm beginning to understand...
I want to know…
I feel…
I think…
Today, I understood…
I was surprised that…
I would still like to know more about…
I am still confused about…
This lesson was valuable because…

• circle out:  have students stand in a circle and share something (what they learned, what they liked best, what they still don't understand, what they're wondering about... a zillion ways to do this)
• whip around:  students share one word or phrase that summarizes the lesson for them (could also create a group wordle or tagxedo with the words)
• 1 minute picture:  give students 60 seconds to draw a picture of the most important thing they learned in the lesson; have them share with partners
• headlines:  students write a one sentence headline summarizing the lesson (can be combined with picture)

For more ideas, check out 40 Ways to Leave a Lesson