We never have enough time to teach all of the math skills and concepts we’d like to teach. Many days we find ourselves running out of time as math class nears an end. The next time this happens to you, consider the importance of those final few minutes of your lesson.

One of the most critical components of any lesson is closure. Through lesson closure, we clarify the ideas of the day’s lesson, restate important concepts, check for student understanding, or connect ideas to past learning or to what is coming next. Consider simple ways to bring closure to your lessons. Try these ideas or prompts:

Turn and share an important idea you learned today.

What is the most important thing to remember about…?

Today we talked about…., tomorrow we will,,,

Tell one thing you know today that you did not know yesterday.

Summary Quilt: Provide students with blank post-its and have them work with a team to write an important idea on each one and post them on blank paper to create a summary quilt.

How do you bring closure to math lessons? Share an idea.