Meaningful Instruction at the End of the School Year

In this post, Heather Jung shares how she ends the year with her students.

The end of the school year can be a stressful time for both teachers and students.  Routines shift after end-of-year testing is done. This can be a confusing time for ELL’s; who often rely on familiar stable routines for support. But this time of year is especially critical for them because they will be away from us, and possibly from the English language, for two months!  We need to provide highly supportive instruction during this critical time. This instruction should be focused on building independence and love of learning.  Students who are motivated and confident are more likely to pursue summer activities that will not only prevent summer slippage, but will build prior knowledge and enhance the learning that will occur in the fall.

  

Here are some great end-of-year activities being done by teachers at my school:

Hallway Display:

Inspire students to think about who they will read with this summer by showing teachers reading with someone in their home.

Grade 1:

Encourage students to think about science, social studies and math by making bags out of old T-Shirts and then going shopping at the Farmer’s Market.

Grade 2:

Promote summer reading by having students to decorate T-Shirts to advertise their favorite books.

Grade 3:

Demonstrate how reading can inspire creativity.  These students made “candy rooms” inspired by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and then sold them to practice economics.

Guided Reading:

Read book one of a series; so that students will fall in love with characters that they will be able to read about throughout the summer.   These second grade ELLs are reading The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner.