Last year I got this poster titled "What Stuck With You?" I'm not sure why this was delivered to my room last year...and I really didn't find a way to use it. But when I moved to my new school I attached the poster to the back of my door and decided to try using it.
At first, I asked kids to tell me what they remembered from the day (or the lesson). I wrote their responses on sticky notes and put on our poster.
Now I give sticky notes to the students and ask them to respond. Sometimes I just ask them to write something they remember.
Sometimes I pose a question for them to respond. Or I ask them to show me an example of what we've been working on. (One day I asked them to write down three contractions.)
To let all my students have an opportunity to shine, I'll ask for drawings instead of words.
Sometimes I'll ask for a response as one step in our work for the week. A couple of weeks ago we were reading about music. I asked kids to write or draw something that shows their favorite music. The next days we investigated how different music made us feel. We wrote opinion paragraphs about favorite music. The thoughts started with our sticky notes.
I don't use this every day. But it is a tool that I try to use regularly. I hope to incorporate this as a regular part of our literacy block, maybe encourage them to respond throughout the morning rather than just at the end of the block.
How do you close lessons? How do you get students to reflect?
