Drawing a Lesson to a Close
As the end of the lesson draws near, you must carefully consider how you would like to the lesson to end. If you are teaching children, you will need to calm them down before they move on to their next activity. If you are teaching adults, you will want to find a way for them to carry the enthusiasm, good feelings, and valuable ideas gained in the lesson into their world. Like a good piece of music, a well-orchestrated lesson comes to a memorable and purposeful conclusion. Here are some ideas that may help your lessons end on a good note.
FINAL REMEMBRANCES
Students will most often remember best what they did last in the lesson. Therefore, the final activity needs to be selected so that the most important aspects of a lesson are highlighted. Inexperienced teachers simply end the lesson when time is up or with a game. Giving little thought to what a student leaves the lesson with is a simply not smart teaching. Good golf instructors, for example, intentionally end the lesson with a student hitting a successful shot so that the student leaves the lesson tee with a positive image of herself as a golfer. A discussion at the end of class is a technique teachers sometimes use to highlight the major concepts learned. Although there is no single right way to close a lesson, a skillful teacher builds the lesson to a deliberate, memorable close.
TRAILERS AND TEASERS
One way movie promoters attempt to attract audience to a movie is by showing trailers, or "teasers". That is, they show small, but meaningful segments of the movie to seize your attention and to make you think about coming to see the full feature. Teachers can do the same thing. Let students know that what they just learned is part of a "bigger picture". The new skill learned in class can be used in a game they might play outside of class, or the new skill will be built on in the next lesson, or the newly learned concepts need to be practiced so that they can be developed further and lead to permanent improvement. In short, attempt to make the students look forward to coming back to the next lesson. Learning is progressive. It shouldn't end with the lesson that is closing; rather, the lesson you are now closing should open a door to future learning and more rewarding experiences in sport and physical activity.
SUMMARY
Meaningful and interesting learning experiences are strongly dependent on a teacher's ability to give a lesson purpose and to keep the learning fresh and invigorating. In other words, a skillful teacher teaches with focus and flow. Identifying a specific purpose for the lesson and reminding the class participants why they're doing what they are doing keeps both teacher's and learner's attention on a meaningful outcome to the lesson. Undertaking instructional practices that get students actively involved in the lesson, their attention centered on the task at hand, with quick changes between briskly paced lesson activities allows the lesson to build momentum to a successful and satisfying close for both the teacher and learners.
A lesson that takes on the appearance of a dull dance by unwilling participants is not a pleasure experience fot anyone. The lessons of good teachers are dynamic events in which successful experiences lead to long remembered and valued lessons. Successful lessons are, therefore, dependent on a teacher adopting and developing strategies that allow the lesson to unfold with focus and flow. Good teachers use strategies to get the lesson moving, maintain momentum, and then close the lesson with a purposeful, memorable experience.
Taken from the book, Teaching Sports and Physical Activity (Paul G. Schempp)
