15 Closure Activities for Classes

Cornell Notes

Students write on the left side: KEY POINTS, on the right side: NOTES of key points, at the bottom: a SUMMARY of the lesson.

Cornell’s website

Medium

Exit Slip

Students answer a question on a piece of paper that is their exit slip to leave class.

Reading Rocket

Brown Sheridan Learning Center

Fishbowl

Student writes one question they have about the topic of the lesson. This can be something for which they know the answer or for which they want an answer. Student shares the question with the person next to them to see if they know the answer, switch who is asking the question.

Facing History

University of Illinois 

Postcards to absent students

Summarizing main points of lesson.

Summarizing Strategies article

Granite Schools

Quick doodles

Doodle / draw two or three concepts presented in the lesson may include words or numbers.

Utica Schools

Quiz Writer

Students prepare a short quiz that includes the answers. A concrete questions and a higher order thinking open-ended question.

Ari Van Deursen

Faculty Focus

Real Life Scenario

Students are asked to apply new concepts to real life scenario(s).

Resumes for Teachers

School Subscriptions

Reflective Journaling

Each day students write about two things they learned. This could be an ongoing part of the course resulting in a semester of reflective summaries.

Canvas

Reflective Journaling NIU

Round About

Call on students one at a time to state what they learned and will take away from the lesson. No one can repeat what someone else said. So instructor can differentiate calling on struggling students first and challenging the last students to answer.

Waterloo

The five W’s

Students explain the who, what, where, when, why and how of the lesson.

University of Tennessee 

Thumbs up thumbs down

Pose some questions that can be answered thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs sideways. This can be done throughout the lesson for very quick feedback on student progress.

College Success

Whip Around

Students quickly and verbally share one thing they learned in the class today. You can have them toss a ball from one to another to answer.

K-12 Teacher and Staff Development 

Teacher Toolkit

Think-Pair-Share

Students answer a question independently (silently in their head) then pair up and share their reflection.

Stanford Teaching Commons

Arizona State University

Why Care?

Students explain relevance of the concept(s) to their life or how they might use the information.

New York Times

3-2-1

Students write 3 things they learned, 2 things they have a question about, 1 thing they want the instructor to know.

Teacher Toolkit

UNT