empty classroom with chairs at tables

Looking back, moving forward, and saying good-bye: Strategies for ending the semester

We tend to rush through final lectures, projects, papers, presentations, and exams at the end of a semester, trying to fit in everything we can before the final class session is over. Consider this all-too-familiar metaphor:

Imagine an evening concert with a firm midnight curfew.  The opening number grabs the crowd’s attention. The middle part of the show is filled with improvised riffs, extended solos, and deep cuts—maybe even a break between sets. But as the night progresses the band starts playing faster and faster in an effort to “get through” their planned set list ahead of the deadline. By the last few songs, the concert is a blur of incoherent noise as the band races to the finish line. (Fournier, 2019)

Taking the time to deliberately plan for recognizing the end of a semester can help students better retain what they have learned, more easily transition to whatever comes next, and provide satisfying closure for the community you have built. According to Eggleston & Smith (2002), using techniques to “part ways” can:

  • provide emotional and psychological closure
  • reduce end-of-semester awkwardness
  • act as an opportune time to summarize central ideas and review content
  • add to students’ sense of accomplishment
  • stimulate further interest in the topic area
  • increase the connection between faculty and students

The following strategies will help you and your students look back at the semester, move forward to the next step, and say good-bye to one another.

Looking Back

Reflecting on what they have learned and accomplished can help students identify the key concepts from your course and integrate them into a more cohesive whole. It can also help students retain what they have learned longer. Here are some ways to have students reflect on what they have learned:

  • Summarize the course material by reviewing the course objectives and goals. You can do this for students, or you can ask them to create and share their own summaries with one another via presentations, asynchronous discussions, or a shared document.
  • Have students write a reflection that describes what they have learned and how they have grown and developed during the course. Some potential questions include (Hardy, 2021):
    • What are you better at now than you were at the beginning of the semester?
    • What are you most proud of that you accomplished in this course? Why does this make you proud?
    • What went well in this course? What tools, supports, or resources aided your success?
    • What challenges did you overcome in this course? What did you learn from overcoming these challenges?
  • Turn reflections into a more collaborative activity by using flipchart paper or sections of the whiteboard distributed around the room. Write a reflection question on each page and ask students to silently circulate and respond to each one. Take pictures of the final products and share with students (for example, by posting the photos to Blackboard).
  • Create a collaborative concept map using a whiteboard, post-its, flipchart paper, digital whiteboard (such as in a Blackboard Collaborate, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams), or a concept-mapping tool to illustrate major concepts in the course and how they are interrelated.
  • Celebrate student work by recognizing significant accomplishments. Provide an opportunity for students to showcase their final projects or best work through a gallery walk, showcase, or by taking turns reading aloud.
  • Dedicate part or all of the final class session to concluding remarks. You can connect the class experience into the broader context of life, and you can ask students to share their own concluding remarks for you and one another.

Looking Forward

Another excellent strategy for the end of your course is to help students transition to whatever is coming next. That can include connecting content from this course to the next course, from your course to practice, or from your course to their lives.

  • Ask previous students to write letters on the impact the course has had on them and share them with your current students.
  • Summarize what you want students to remember from the course 20 years later. What do you want the lasting impact of this course to be? (Lang, 2018).
  • Ask current students to pass the torch by writing or recording videos offering advice to future students in this course. For example, students could share the most important topics they learned or the strategies that were successful in helping them learn.
  • Ask students to set goals for continuing to develop the skills they learned in your course. They can identify how they will apply those skills, receive feedback, and continue learning.
  • Have students develop personalized learning plans where they identify ways they will continue to learn about the subject and develop their skills. For example, students can identify associations to join, journals to read, or leading scholars to follow on social media.
  • Connect students to ongoing affinity groups related to your field, such as student organizations, professional and academic associations, and community groups.

Saying Good-Bye

Every class has become a community by the end of the semester, although the closeness of those connections can vary greatly. Marking the end of the semester with a deliberate effort to part ways provides an important sense of closure or transition to those relationships, and your approach can be elaborate or very simple (Eggleston & Smith, 2002).

  • Simply acknowledge the end of the semester with a few words, thank students for their hard work, let them know you were inspired by what they accomplished, and wish them well. This could be live or recorded.
  • Provide students with time to say good-bye to one another.
  • Request students to share their LinkedIn profile accounts as an optional discussion board post, so that students can stay connected professionally.
  • If the size of your class permits, write a brief message to each student to say good-bye and recognize their growth or achievements in your course.
  • Ask students to write notes of gratitude for an individual or group who helped them this semester. Those could be individual notes to classmates, friends, or family, or perhaps as a group they wish to thank a guest speaker or a department who provided services that supported their learning.

References

Eggleston, T. J., & Smith, G. E. (2002). Parting ways: Ending your courseAPS Observer15(3).

Fournier, E. (2019, November 11). How to end a course: Teaching tips. Washington University in St. Louis Center for Teaching and Learning.

Hardy, J. (2021, May 3). End-of-the-year reflection: Tools for validation, celebration, gratitude and planning ahead. MyVU News.

Lang, J. (2018, September 30). What will students remember from your class in 20 years?. The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Explore More Ideas for End-Of-Semester Activities

Activities for the Last Day of Class by Melissa Heimelein

Ending the Semester by Georgetown University

Fizzle or Finale: The Final Day of Class by Duquesne University

Last Day of Class by University of California Berkeley Center for Teaching & Learning

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *