Thursday, March 24, 2016

CLOSURE STICKS

Closure sticks have been another quick and successful conversational tool that I have incorporated into my classroom this year!  If you are looking for a closure tool to implement tomorrow, here it is!  Both the art teacher and myself have been using these this year.  The students are used to using them in both classes and get double the practice with their conversations due to our aligned language and planning.

HOW IT WORKS:
With about two minutes remaining in class, have a student pull a closure stick out of a can (bag, your hand, anything!). Next, add your own creative flow....

*Have the students do a  quick turn and talk with a partner
*Have the student who pulled choose someone to answer    
*Have the student who chose the stick answer....etc.

WHY I'M USING IT:
Closure sticks have been a powerful accountability tool for myself in making sure that I put a nice bow on my already solid lesson plan.  I can sometimes get caught up in my plans and I sacrifice a 2 minute closure to keep going with what I am in the middle of with the students.  Closure sticks have opened my eyes to what students are actually taking away from my lesson.  They are also allowing one more way for students to be conversational with their learning.  I have seen lightbulbs go off when a student is able to explain a concept or trick to another student in "kid language."  I want my kids to be empowered to talk about what they are learning about as many chances as possible in a safe environment.  As always, I implement these conversational tools in quick ways so that I am not taking time away from creating, performing, experiencing, composing, singing, moving, and the countless other things we do in music class.  

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS:
Don't limit yourself to these....put your own creative spin on this template! 
  • Why are we doing this? (Our concept)
  • Sweety, what did you do in music class today? (My favorite...read in the voice of a mom or grandma)
  • Summarize 3 main ideas/take aways from today's class.
  • How can you use our music concept outside of school?
  • What music element or principle best describes your composition?  Why? (Feel free to change composition to any other appropriate element from the class ex: performance, drumming, etc)
  • One connection that I have to our music concept today is ________?
  • I still want to learn more about _______ because_______.
  • What was the best part of today's class? Why?
  • The part I like most about my composition is _______ because ________.  (Feel free to change composition to any other appropriate element from the class ex: performance, drumming, etc)
  • Rate your understanding from today's music concept.  (See picture from above for example)
  • One struggle I had today was ___________.
  • Of all the work I have completed today, I am most proud of __________ because _________.
  • The one thing I would change about my composition is __________ because _________.  (Feel free to change composition to any other appropriate element from the class ex: performance, drumming, etc)
Thank you so much for reading!  Please feel free to post questions or comments below!

Holly 

2 comments:

  1. Such a great idea!!! Just found your blog from Instagram and am excited to read more posts!

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