Closing Bell
Instructional Closings
I use the Closing Bell strategy to bring my students back together as a community at the end of each class to check for understanding, debrief the class, give "grows and glows," and/or preview what we will be doing the following day. Building in this type of closing at the end of class is especially important in a blended classroom when students are spending so much time working independently or in groups.
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I use this strategy to activate my students' interest and prior knowledge on a topic. This gives me a good starting point on the curated video and reading list for the independent station. It also gives my students a visual representation of the range of interests in the class. In my opinion, using the interests of my students to guide instruction is the core of a student-centered classroom.
At the end of every class, my students must take a computer-based exit slip. This is an essential part of my blended program because these exit slips tell me whether or not my students are ready to move on to the next skill. If a student gets 4/5 or 5/5, he or she can move on. If not, he or she will be assigned a different type of lesson on that skill the next day.