Starter / Finisher - Lesson Summary Square

A classic plenary activity to get the kids thinking about the main focus of the lesson….

This is no more than a piece of paper (A4 cut across the middle) with the title ‘Lesson Summary Square’ at the top and a space for the students name and the date. I have about 200 hundred of these that I keep in my cupboard.

At the end of the lesson, I (not always) give out a lesson summary square to each student and ask them to complete a ‘lesson summary’! I advise them to summarise what they think were the most important parts of the lesson. Sometimes I will put the learning objectives back on the board to give them structure, however, more often than not I will just let them think.

This is such a great thing to do as it serves a number of purposes. Firstly, you can check what the students thought were the most important parts of the lesson against what you actually wanted them to learn making it great for diagnostic assessment. They can also be used as a starter for the next lesson by getting students to read out their summaries after you have handed them back.

This activity can also be done via post it notes. Give each student a post it note and ask them to write down 3 key points from the lesson and get them to come up and stick them on the board. You can then go through a sample and your board looks really cool full of ‘learning post it notes’. Alternatively, get the students to come back up to the board and take a different post it note and get the kids to review other students summaries. The post it note way is particularly powerful as it is anonymous so the students don’t feel threatened by having their summaries read out.

A classic way to end a lesson (and maybe start the next one)

Enjoy….............