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Summing up, recapping and closing

teach

So, you've introduced yourself, established rapport, focused the learners, presented the materials, elicited and told, practised the skills and/or language and given and got some useful feedback.  What now?
This is often the point at which some people tend to slip into lecture mode and tell the students what they have learned.  It's a kind of sympathetic magic:
    If I tell them they have learned it they will have learned it

Don't be tempted to do that.  Get the learners to tell you what they have learned.  Here are a few ways:

  1. A pyramid group exercise
    pyramid
    Get individuals to write a short list if what they have learned, then put the individuals into pairs or threes and get them to combine their lists.  Then re-group the pairs into small group of four or five and get them to exchange ideas and extend their lists.
    Then get the whole class back together to provide some feedback.
  2. Personal responses to the materials and activities
    who me
    Get everyone to stand up or be the focus of an online lesson and tell you one thing (it may just be a word) that they have learned in your teaching slot or lesson.  They can't sit down, log off or go for coffee until they have done that.
    Sometimes, this kind of exercise reveals that what the learners think they learned and what you thought they would learn are rather different.
  3. Organised recaps
    checklist
    Divide the lesson into its targets (perhaps a skill, some lexis and a grammar point) and take the areas one at a time, eliciting from the learners something they have learned about each topic.
    Focus on the activities and tasks that had an identifiable product, not the tasks that were just to activate ideas and raise awareness of something.
  4. Prospective summary
    crystal
    Ask people to look in a crystal ball and tell you where they are going next and what they will still need to learn.  This can elicit some blank looks so do it after they have already considered what they have just learned.
    Then you can do the rest:
    1. Tell people how well they have done (gently if the answer is Not very well at all, really).
    2. Elicit some ideas from the learners about how they can revise and review the skills or language they have learned.  This is easier if you have designed good take-away materials and handouts.  Learners need a record of learning.
    3. Supply some ideas for activities for the learners to do independently to revise and review the learning.  Homework tasks are an obvious target but homework doesn't have to be written and handed in for assessment and judgement.  A homework task can be independent of you and done and assessed by the individual.  Learners can find their own materials and their own opportunities to use the language.
    4. Say what comes next and how it will build on what happened today.
    5. Tell the learners what they need to do (if anything) to prepare for the next lesson on this topic.

Don't forget to thank the class and wish them well for the rest of the day / week / course etc.!