Guiding Students to Lead Opening and Closing Activities

During a professional development session a few years ago based on the book Neuroteach: Brain Science and the Future of Education, by Glenn Whitman and Ian Kelleher, I was struck by the assertion that learning is particularly “sticky” during the first and last moments of a class. I’d already been thinking a lot about how I could create opportunities for my students to feel more ownership over our classroom and began putting these ideas together: I wondered, could I build my students’ sense of agency and help them feel this classroom is ours, not mine, by turning the task of opening and closing lessons over to my students? I decided to find out.

Empowering Students to lead the lesson Opening

Because I chose to try this experiment with my ninth graders, I scaffolded heavily. I began by creating a checklist for students to follow to open the class. I have this list printed, laminated, and affixed to a clipboard that they pick up as they enter the class on their assigned date to “open.” The list asks them to do the following:

• Greet their fellow students as they walk into the classroom,
• Bring the class to attention when the bell rings,
• Read the daily lesson plan and objectives that I have written on the board, and
• Lead us in the Reading Minute.

The Reading Minute is an idea I stole and tweaked from Kelly Gallagher. Gallager’s concept is simple: Begin the class by reading something, anything really, for a minute or so. He begins the first month of school delivering the Reading Minute himself, and then students sign up for a date.

My approach is similar, with a twist. Together, my students and I select a genre for the reading minute. For example, we might decide to read one minute of poetry, one minute of a novel, or one minute of a favorite children’s book. My students often get creative.

They’ve read one minute of a celebrity Wikipedia page, one minute of an originally composed top-10 list, one minute of song lyrics (radio edits only, please), one minute of “Dad jokes,” and there was even a year that they read one minute of a news article in which the headline contained the phrase “Florida man.” Once everyone has had a turn to do the reading minute for the chosen genre, we pick a new genre and begin again.

To help facilitate the reading minute, I carved out class time for students to select and print their reading minute excerpt on the day we selected the genre. I added these to the clipboard, so that students could quickly flip to theirs on their assigned date. This helped ensure that every student was prepared to lead this part of the class.

empowering students lead the lesson Closing

Next, I created a menu of choices for a class closer. This is also on the clipboard, and when the opener finishes, they pass the clipboard to the closer. The closer’s first job is to keep an eye on time. When five minutes are left in class, they alert the teacher, so I can wrap up and turn over control. The closing options are varied, and the closer may choose what they’d like to do. Here are the options I give to my students:

• Key Word. Go around the table and ask each student to share a key word that relates to the lesson.
• Low Stakes Quiz. Ask three quiz questions, of your own invention, related to the lesson.
• Snowstorm. Have everyone write down on a piece of paper one sentence about what they learned today and crumple it up. Next, throw the papers and pick up another’s paper and read it aloud.
• Six-Word Headline. Share a headline, of your own invention, that summarizes the lesson and is exactly six words long.
• Thought, Question, Aha. Go around the table, starting with yourself. Ask each student to share either a thought, a question, or an “aha!” about today’s class.
• Red Light, Yellow Light, Green Light. Go around the table starting with yourself. Share either a red light (something you still don’t understand about the text or the lesson), a yellow light (something you are starting to understand about the text or the lesson), or a green light (something you understand clearly about the text or the lesson).
• Community Builder. Ask a school-appropriate ice-breaker question—for example: What’s the best breakfast cereal? What commercial jingle will you never forget? Start with yourself, then go around the table sharing answers.

Bumps in the Road

If I’m being honest, the results were mixed. Initially, students struggled to remember that it was their turn to open or close, and I had to step in to facilitate, which is contrary to the point of building their agency. I found that writing the name of the opener and closer on the board as part of the lesson plan helped most.

Additionally, even experienced teachers struggle to get a class to settle when they arrive. Turning this task over to students proved challenging and often required my stepping in to help, chiming in with a quick reminder to give our full and focused attention to the opener.

Looking Ahead

Overall, my students seemed to enjoy the experience. I smiled to see reserved students step out of their shells to open, and I’ll admit it was gratifying when a particularly boisterous student, struggling to get the class to settle, turned to me with this comment: Teaching is hard! Furthermore, I enjoyed watching my students problem-solve: Can I give them some of your candy if they are quiet? Although we do student-led discussions and projects where student groups lead portions of the class, this was a short, sweet, low-stakes moment to step into leadership.

As I look ahead to next year, I wonder: How can I adjust this for older students? How can I streamline getting the class settled? Do I have the right options on the closing menu? Luckily, I have a perfect partner in figuring it all out: my students. After all, if I truly want this exercise to build their ownership and autonomy in the classroom, they should be by my side making these decisions, too.