Check out more Inspired2Learn activities like this one in the Inspired Teaching “21 Ways to End the School Day” Guidebook.

Discipline: These activities can be applied in any class or subject area.

Age level: All

Time: 5-15 minutes (or longer if you build out some of the activities more) 

While a summative assessment may be the ultimate way we know whether our teaching led to learning, we benefit from formative assessments all along the way to help us change course if things just aren’t sinking in. There are lots of ways to gauge how well a lesson went in just the last few minutes of class and these forms of feedback can sometimes even be fun. 

Reflective Beach Ball

This activity can be used in lots of different ways and it adds a little movement (tossing and catching a ball) to the close of class. You begin with an inflatable beach ball – preferably the kind that has different colored segments. Using a wet-erase marker (this makes it possible to erase and reuse the ball for future applications but dry-erase maker will rub off when you toss the ball around) write different questions or prompts in each segment of the ball. 

Assemble students in a circle and toss the ball to one of them. They answer the prompt/question that is under their right pointer finger (or some such designation) and then toss the ball to another student until everyone in the room has had a turn. 

What you write on the ball depends on your goal. If, for example, you want feedback on your lesson, you might write things like: 

• What worked well for you in today’s class? 
• What could we have done differently to make today’s class better for you? 
• What are you wondering about after today’s lesson? 
• What did you find difficult about today’s lesson? 
• What’s something from today’s lesson that you want to remember? 
• What’s something from today’s lesson that you would like to go over again in our next class?

If you wanted to use this activity to check for understanding of a concept you taught, your questions could be content-specific. For example, in a lesson about parts of speech you could do the following: 

• Point to a proper noun and say it out loud. 
• Show us an action verb and tell us what you’re doing. 
• Place the ball somewhere in the room and use a sentence with a preposition that explains where you put it. 
• Use an adverb to describe the ball in motion. 
• Use adjectives to explain how the ball feels in your hands. 
• Share your pronouns. 

If you wanted to use this activity to build community, your questions might sound like this: 

• What’s the last book you read? 
• What’s something you like to eat? 
• Are you a night owl or an early riser? 
• What’s one of your pet peeves?  
• What makes you laugh? 
• What song are you enjoying right now? 

There are endless variations to the reflective beach ball – it just offers a different way of asking questions, providing a little spontaneity to the process, and rather than you being the director of the questions, students “pass” the inquiries to one another.

3-2-1 Feedback

Like the beach ball activity, this one can be molded to a wide variety of purposes. This is essentially an “exit ticket” that you’d have students write and give to you as they leave the room, but what makes it interesting is how this structure organizes their reflection. 

The frame for the prompt looks like this: 

• 3 things you learned in class today
• 2 things you want to learn more about based on what you learned
• 1 question you have about today’s lesson

But you can tweak the prompts in different ways depending on your goal. For example, if you wanted to get a sense of how a class discussion went you might change the prompts as follows: 

• 3 things your classmates said that stand out for you
• 2 things you contributed to the discussion
• 1 thing you wish you had said

If you wanted to check for understanding in a science lesson you could ask content-specific questions following the 3-2-1 format such as: 

• 3 facts about atoms
• 2 things that still confuse you about atoms
• 1 reason why knowing about atoms matters in your life

You can even use this format to get a sense of how your classroom community is coming along with questions like: 

• 3 ways your classmates are helping you to learn
• 2 things we could do to improve our classroom community
• 1 thing you would like to do more in this class

It is important to explain to students what you will do with these 3-2-1 reflections. In some instances, you may use them as part of students’ grades, but there is still value to them doing the work without a grade if you show them that you use what they have written for some other purpose. Here are some things you can do with these 3-2-1 reflections that don’t require grading or even providing written feedback:

• Read them over and create a summary of the main things you learned from the insights that you share verbally with the class the next time you meet. 
• Pull out 1 or 2 statements from the collection to share aloud in the next class as examples of some of the insights you gleaned. 
• If you do these regularly, consider having students keep them in a notebook for their own reflection. Explain to them how this kind of reflective writing after a lesson is good for memory retention.
  
  

Share One Word

If you have just 3 minutes left before the bell, simply asking students to share one word that represents their learning and inviting responses from around the class can give you a really good picture of what stuck out. Consider making this invitation in two parts so the answers are more original and less inspired by what a previous student has said.

Your directions might sound like this. “Take a minute to write down one word that best describes what you’re taking away from today’s lesson. Thumbs up if you have your word. [Wait until all thumbs are up.] Everyone has their word, now we’re going to start with the person closest to the door sharing just your one word until we all have shared.”

Take note of the words students share and where you see a lot of overlap. You’ll want to listen not only for overall trends but also pay attention to what individuals are saying and what that can teach you about their particular ways of learning. 

Word-At-A-Time Poems

Similar to the activity above, Word-At-A-Time Poems invite students to share their insights in just one word at time. But unlike “Share One Word” the words that each student speaks are recorded into a poem and then read back to the class. For this reason, you’ll want to do this activity when you have more than 5 minutes before the bell. Here is the process: 

• Say to the class, “We’re going to create a poem together that sums up what we learned today. But each of you will contribute at least one word to that poem. Take a moment to jot down a few words that best describe your learning today. [Give about a minute for them to write.] Now we’ll start with [name]. Please share one word from your list that describes what you learned today. I will be writing your words down so please speak them clearly.”
• As students share their words, take notes so you have them all down on paper. Do not hesitate to go slower or ask students to repeat themselves so you are sure to have all their words. 
• After the poem comes to a natural close read back the “poem” in the order of the words they shared. This is a beautiful way to showcase students as experts as you put their own words front and center. Consider sharing the finished poem with families as a summary of the day’s learning! 

More Creative Ways to Gather Insights at the End of Class
Often times the classic “exit ticket” at the end of class is just a waste of paper and time. Teachers don’t have enough time to grade all the full assignments students do so taking time to read through lots of little slips of paper is often more struggle than it’s worth. But some sort of closing reflection or quick formative assessment at the end of class can be very instrumental in letting you know if your students got the lesson or they didn’t. This source from Ditch That Textbook offers several technology-based strategies from polls to Padlets that can give you a quick snapshot of learning without taking too much time on your part or that of your students.

Standards Addressed by these Activities