Your group lesson is done, time is ending… now what? It’s time to begin your closing activity.<\/p>\n
Closing activity? Can’t I just tell the students good by and move on? Only if you want to be left with clean-up and setting up for your next group that will be anxious to start their first encounter with your activity (the one you’ve<\/em> already completed with one group). Use the following steps to create a smooth transition\u00a0and to place clean-up responsibility onto the students.<\/p>\n 1. Create an orderly clean-up plan.<\/strong> Know where you want your supplies, books, etc. to end up. Have the students put those items away or into the designated places. Example: “Today when we clean-up, I want the books piled in the middle of the table. I want your booklets closed so I can read your title page. Pencils, erasers, markers and scissors are to be returned to the tote on the table. Then check the floor for stray paper and debris. When you have finished, show me you are ready for our closure.” <\/em><\/p>\n 2. Closure<\/strong> or tying up the group activity can be as simple as discussing ‘what went well’ or as complex as discussing what they learned and how they will use that information next time. Without closure, the students leave and may not think of your activity again. With closure, you send them away with the intended idea that what they worked on is important enough to discuss one more time. Closure also creates a calming moment after clean-up which is often a bit hectic.<\/p>\n 3. Dismissal<\/strong> now becomes more controlled and quieter (if you have focused their attention back to the activity) after a could-be raucous clean-up. Always dismiss students rather than letting them get up and walk away. Other groups or the entire class may be moving at the same time. If you set the expectation of an orderly and quiet\u00a0 dismissal, the classroom will be calmer at a time when craziness could easily take over.<\/p>\n 4. Watch you students move<\/strong> to their next activity. Don’t be so busy getting ready for your next group that you ignore their movement. If the students did the clean-up earlier, you can afford the time to watch these students as the settle into their next activity. (This adds control for active students, keeping them from rough-housing, etc, between groups.)<\/p>\n Now you are ready for your next group or to put away the supplies until next time your group meets. A calm transition aids everyone. It suggests that class manners\/rules\/guidelines are for everyone to follow, not just when the classroom teacher is watching. Responsibility for yourself and\u00a0the materials\u00a0you use, as well as respect for others, is a 24\/7 habit that we expect to\u00a0last a lifetime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Your group lesson is done, time is ending… now what? It’s time to begin your closing activity. Closing activity? Can’t I just tell the students good by and move on? Only if you want to be left with clean-up and setting up for your next group that will be anxious to start their first encounter\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[58,59,60],"class_list":["post-229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assistant-tips","tag-clean-up","tag-groups","tag-student-dismissal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paddyeger.com\/blog\/educatingamericablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paddyeger.com\/blog\/educatingamericablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paddyeger.com\/blog\/educatingamericablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paddyeger.com\/blog\/educatingamericablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paddyeger.com\/blog\/educatingamericablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paddyeger.com\/blog\/educatingamericablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paddyeger.com\/blog\/educatingamericablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paddyeger.com\/blog\/educatingamericablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paddyeger.com\/blog\/educatingamericablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}