The last month of school can be challenging. What do you do in the classroom when you have just weeks left of school? As teachers, we want to keep the engagement and rigor, but summer is so close that students just want to check out.
Check out these 3 great ideas to help keep your students engaged and learning and help you make it through the last few weeks of school.
1. Keep expectations high during the last month of school
When you lower expectations, students pick up on it right away and may begin to check out. What do I mean by maintaining expectations? Begin a long term project like a novel study or book club. When you start something new that has multiple components and rigorous expectations, students are more likely to make the effort.
Make sure to differentiate
Whether you begin a novel study or start a book club, they are both easy to differentiate. Create a unique experience that brings excitement to the classroom. Read this blog post about starting literature circles in the classroom.
Another bonus is that you can add audio books into the mix. Get headphone splitters that plug into the device housing the audiobook. Students have the book in front of them and can listen to the assigned reading chapters or read independently.
Have activities for students to do with their assigned chapters. I assign roles like
Theme Tracker
Passage Finder
Discussion Director
Ethicist
Connector
Word Detective
Artful Artists
Conflict Detector
I like to have a packet with pages for each job and a cover page that breaks down the reading chapters by expected date of completion. I train groups to meet every 3-4 days and discuss the novel, share their job, and practice how to speak and listen in the group setting. See this blog post series for more detailed information on running successful book clubs.
I also love inviting in people from the community to join in our classroom book clubs. This sets a more serious tone when students know that there’s a community member who has taken their own time to read the same novel they are reading and who is preparing to discuss it with them. AND, I serve tea and cookies. Kids LOVE something special!
2. Avoid piecemeal work during the last month of school
No one wants worksheets that have no connection to content. When you begin a long-term project, students know there is a purpose and they know the end goal. This creates focus. One great idea I’ve used during the last month of school is to do some project based learning unit. My favorite deals with environmental impact of plastics.
Use high-interest topics
We read several articles about plastics in our oceans and landfills. We looked at what is used in 1-3 days in and around our campus or home. 2 years ago, my 6th grade class analyzed our cafeteria trays and packets of plastic sporks, napkins, and straws.
We broke into focus groups to research what happens to these plastic items and what our alternatives might be. We looked into cost for alternatives and then wrote letters of inquiry to different employees in the district that could answer our questions. Once we had the information, we wrote proposals for reducing the use of plastics on our campus.
Empower students to act
Students were focused and driven in their research. We presented our findings to each other every 2-3 days and discussed our next move as a class, reassigned the work, and got to it. I’m here to tell you, there have been few times in my teaching history that I’ve seen a class so focused and passionate about the work.
3. Run a simulation the last few weeks of school
If you teach social studies, you can create groups that correspond with the people you study. Create some system for earning points. This could be work completion, class participation, helping others, random point cards that are drawn, points for games focused on knowledge of the content area, etc. You can also use escape rooms that take more than 1 class period.
For example, I teach about ancient Greece. I create 5 groups within my classroom, each named after a different city-state. As we learn more about the civilization, I’ll add “Fate Cards” to a box for random drawing. Each card has a point value. Cards may ask students to retell something learned from the reading or investigation. Throw in silly cards like “The gods must be with you. Earn 20 points.” It’s very flexible. You can add negative point cards as well.
Create group activities that have buy-in
Have groups make banners to represent their group. Come up with individual names for the citizens of your groups, ask students to dress up in period clothing, set a point goal for the day or week, or just keep track of points on a weekly basis.
At the end of the designated time, the winning group is suitably rewarded. In the past, I’ve served ice cream during recess or I’ve given free time, homework passes, or a trip to the prize box. You can set it up to work for you.
Make sure to have early finisher or alternate activities to fall back on
The very last week of school is the perfect time to work on a Memory Book. Find a great example here. It has 15 pages, but you can delete the ones you don’t want. Make sure students have enough pages to do 2-4 each day. When done, students can share their favorite page with the class. Find printable memories activities here.
This is also the perfect week to write a letter to their future selves. Since I work in a middle school, my 6th graders write to their future 8th grade selves. I save the letters until the last week of 8th grade, then I send them over to their classrooms. (Actually, I always have students asking for their letters…they remember after 2 years.)
Whatever you decide to do, avoid burning yourself out. If you allow student energy to spiral, you’ll be exhausted. Keep the last month of school low key and as normal as possible, but infuse a few highly engaging activities. Happy students, happy teacher. Happy teacher, happy students.
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Michelle says
Great tips for the end of the school year!
Retta London says
Great ideas for finishing strong! So important to keep it authentic and as rigorous as the rest of the year! I love the idea of bringingf in community members to join book clubs! Thanks for the inspiration!
Gini Musmanno says
You are so right about keeping expectations high or the kids will check out. They are smarter than some teachers think. Thanks for the reminder.