Closure is a great opportunity for formative assessment. As students talk and write about their understanding of the learned content, the teacher gets to see the results of the learning activities. It's also a good way to see what kinds of differentiation will need to be done as individual students express different understandings. Teachers can see specifically who needs further support to attain this knowledge through observing student work during closure activities.
Closure can take any form that allows students to reflect and synthesize what they have learned, connecting new learning to previous learning or maybe even to another subject. It could be as simple as a discussion or free write about a topic or it could be a structured activity that requires students to make connections. Closure does not introduce new material; the point is to have students think about previously learned material. The teacher is guiding, listening, and observing while the students are doing the thinking, talking, and writing.
Step 4: Plan How to Monitor Student Performance and Give Feedback
Each activity that you design will have its own opportunities to work on the learning described in the objectives. When you are clear about what each learning activity provides to your students, you will know exactly what you are looking for as you monitor their work. Being able to see what your students are thinking and learning as they talk, write, draw, or otherwise create will become easier with practice and experience.
As you plan learning activities, you should visualize yourself finding out what each student is doing and thinking while working on the activity. Think of yourself walking through the rows of tables, looking over shoulders, listening, and asking questions to decide whether or not to give feedback and what kind to give. You will be continually evaluating each student's progress toward the objective and their success in completing the task. You can join in a group engaged in a good discussion or simply give a student who is working well a nonverbal sign of a approval like a smile or pat on the shoulder to let them know you are happy with their work without breaking their concentration.
Step 3: Plan How to Help Students Connect New Information to Established Learning
Using the different levels of Bloom's Taxonomy is a good way to help you begin to make connections. You can keep editing and tinkering with the details of the learning activity until you are satisfied that it will help your students achieve the objective in stimulating and engaging ways. It would also be beneficial to have your students present their understanding by writing, drawing, or acting. This requires them to make personal meaning of new material, which helps to consolidate and solidify learning.
Learners need opportunities to concentrate on the important aspects of new information. They need to work with it by reformatting or rephrasing, applying, comparing and contrasting it with other information, and forming connections with related material or personal connections. Make sure you are keeping the objective, essential question, and assessment task in mind as you choose ways for students to make meaningful and lasting connections.
Step 2: Plan How to Provide Access to New Information
Discovery learning is a way for students to discover or learn new information on their own. This type of learning is beneficial in that once students have invested some time and thought into figuring something out, they are more likely to be interested in learning "the answer." A good general rule for teachers to follow is, "Don't do any work that students can do for themselves."
A common problem for many students is that they do not have the background knowledge they need to make sense of new information. For example, if you deliver information in the form of a reading, lecture, or video that students don't understand because they lack the vocabulary skills or other necessary background knowledge, then they will effectively lack access to that information. Looking at sources through the eyes of the average student, gifted student, and disengaged or underprepared student can help the teacher to navigate potential roadblocks.
Step 1: Plan How to Start Students' Thinking
The teacher's decision about how to activate background knowledge is heavily influenced by who their students are. In order for teachers to do this, they must first find out what each student knows. Chances are, every student has a different level of background knowledge that the teacher needs to assess.
Before you ask your students to learn new information, you should first gather and review what they already know. There is a term for this called "activating background knowledge." Background knowledge comes from an abundant range of sources that has a profound effect on what students can make sense of in learning and what they cannot.
