Routines that will check for understanding, manage students and build classroom community
Routines and consistency matter greatly and are necessary for creating a smooth learning environment in your classroom. Routines help with creating community, checking for understanding, and managing the classroom. I’m going to share three opening routines and three closing routines that you can start using in your next class.
Opening Routines
If students come in and know that they will be required to write, read, or share at the
launch of the lesson, then they enter the room already anticipating that there is an immediate expectation. Teachers won’t hear the usual litanies of, “What are we doing
today?” Rather, students are often calmer knowing a task is at hand. Experiment with each opening routine below: Share One Word, Quote of the Day and the Reading Minute.
Share One Word
Ask students to share one word about how they are feeling that day. It can be in general, about a new project, or about something that is happening in their lives or in the world. This is whole-child stuff that tends to the emotional aspect of the student, bringing balance to the academic and intellectual focuses that typically drive the school day. It also builds emotional intelligence. When I was first doing this opening routine, students would say things like good, okay, tired, and bad, and then as they became more comfortable with each other and gained a larger range of emotion words, they began to share such words as pensive, anxious, serene and frustrated. For low-stakes in the beginning, have students share with a neighbor or in a triad, then build to a whip around the room where everyone shares his or her word aloud.
Quote of the Day
Students love to share their opinions. (Who doesn’t?) As an opening routine, I used Quote of the Day the first few years I taught high school, and it proved a great success. I would find a quote from a singer, actor, politician, or a famous historical figure and have it displayed on the board when students walked in. They would enter the room, sit down, and begin writing a response. Under the quote, I would include the same question prompts: What does it mean? How can you relate to it, or make a connection to the world?
The Reading Minute
This one comes from English language arts teacher guru Kelly Gallagher. Find a passage online or in a book — an excerpt of a poem, essay, article, or story. Then read it aloud. The passage might be humorous, interesting, angering or beautiful, exhibiting great writing. After reading aloud, students open their notebooks and write a single-sentence summary to remember what they just heard, or they can write a thesis statement. After a month of modeling different types of passages and sharing aloud sentences, student then sign up to bring in a passage to read aloud for the Reading Minute. At the end of each semester, you can have students look back at their collection of single sentences and reflect on what was their favorite Reading Minute passage and why
Closing Routines
Cleaning up and discussing homework is an important routine for the end of the day, but it’s also important to give your students a chance to further process their learning, and even to set a goal. Closing routines allow your students to check their understanding, and they also give your students an opportunity to reflect. It’s a great way to wrap up your lessons. Closing routines also honor your time together that day, as well as give your students an opportunity to use their voice. The following are three examples of “exit slips” that can be completed on a small piece of scratch paper or a sticky note at the close of class.
Rate the Learning or Lesson
This exit slip can be accomplished in a matter of mere minutes. Ask students, on a one to 10 scale, to rate how well they understood the learning that day. If they rate their understanding low, ask them to write down what they may need such as more time, more explanation or a graphic organizer to help with writing the essay. Students can also rate the lesson or teaching on a one to 10 scale; ask them to write a sentence or two giving feedback on the materials or activity that day. Collect the slips, and after your students leave, make piles of similar ratings. If you have a lot of eight, nine, and 10 ratings, the lesson went well. If you have lower numbers, then it might be time to probe
for further information from the whole class the next day, and then review or even reteach.
Closing Statement or Question
Ask students to first turn and talk in pairs or in a triad. What did you learn? What surprised you? What is unclear? What do you want to know more about? Then ask them to come up with a closing statement or question about the content and write it down. Collect the slip, and use these for talking points the next day, answering questions and commenting on statements they wrote.
Grab a Goal
Ask your students to think about a goal they would like to set. It can have to do with the unit of study, or it can be a personal goal outside of the classroom. Use sentence starters to prompt the writing for this one.
Tomorrow, in class I will be ready to ______. Tonight, I will ____. By the end of the semester, I will ____.
Have them share with a neighbor or in small groups, and ask for a few volunteers to share with the whole class. Collect the slips and sticky notes. This is a wonderful way to get to know your students. You can do one, too! Writing their names on exit slips was
optional for me. You decide — perhaps sometimes yes, and other times no. Students will be more honest if it’s anonymous.Yet with goal setting, there’s more accountability if you have names, and you can check in with individuals and offer specific supports and encouragement.
Collaborating With Colleagues
Advice I like to give to new teachers: Go out and collect opening and closing routines from fellow teachers. The internet is not always the best place to seek curricular materials, your colleagues are! Talk with colleagues during meetings and then stop by their rooms to take a look at their resources and student products.
A mistake new teachers often make is thinking they have to create everything from scratch. I explain to them that there are those who have been at this a long time and have honed strategies, collected data and student samples, and then adjusted that activity or project to make it even better. Those teachers are there, right next door, ready to share their expertise and resources with you.