Make the Most of the End of the School Year

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:"

Ecclesiastes 3:1

 

If you are wondering how to bring closure to the end of the school year, or how to continue productive learning when it is so beautiful outside, you are not alone.

The end of the school year can be one big time waster after another - if you let it.

To make the most of the time I have left in the school year, I try not to schedule any new curriculum to learn in June. Instead, I take the time to reinforce the learning that took place throughout the year through reviewing, revisiting and reflecting.  

At the end I'll show you an easy way to do it, in one amazing step!

 

Review

Reviewing is important for retention. The more time you have to review what was learned that day, or week or year, the more students will be able to recall that information when needed.

The end of the school year is the perfect time to review what  was covered that school year.

I also like to review the accomplishments we've made and the challenges we've had through the year. 

It puts things into perspective and highlights how far everyone has come.

 

Revisit

After reviewing, there is bound to be one or two things that come up that are worth revisiting.

·       Was there a project left unfinished?

·       Is there a topic that needs a second look?

·       Can you find a paper that needs to be redone?

I use June as a last ditch effort to not only, tie up loose ends, but a second chance to fix things or learn things that just weren't done well the first time.

 

Reflect

I use reflection to get my kids thinking about how they learn.  In the teaching world we call it 'metacognition'. 

I asked them questions like:

·       What came easy?

·       What was difficult?

·       What does that tell you about how you learn best?

·       What does that tell you about your strengths and weaknesses?

I also take time to look at how much they each have improved over the year.  It can be really motivating to see how much was accomplished especially in the early years.

 

One Easy Step

I accomplish all this reviewing, revisiting and reflecting in one easy step through getting my kids to make a portfolio of their year.

They have to collect 1 or 2 of their favourite pieces from each subject and do a little write up on them, which changes depending on their grade level.

To make it easy on myself, I created a template I use year after year. It has a fun layout and includes examples from past years, as well as a rubric, for meaningful grading.

It isn't hard to make your own expectations, marking scheme and templates, but if you are interested you can get mine from here. 

 

I hope you take time to review, revisit and reflect this June and then have a well deserved summer break!

 

And as always,