Closing Summaries - Online Engagement and Teaching Hub

What is it?

Asking students to write a closing summary is one of the strategies that can be used to wrap up a learning session. Students summarise the key concepts of the lesson in their own words to make sense of the new knowledge that they have learnt. It can be a quick task that students can do at the end of the session individually, in pairs or in groups.

Why use it?

Closure of a session prompts students to think about what they have learnt. By wrapping up the key concepts or skills learnt, students can reflect on whether they have grasped concepts or topics or if there are still questions they need to explore.

Closing summaries help students to:

Reflect on their learning.
Summarise the concepts learnt in their own words.
Link prior knowledge to new knowledge and relate this to real-life scenarios.

Closing summaries help teachers to:

Gain an understanding of gaps in students’ learning.
Address misconceptions.
Reflect on students’ progress to plan the future lessons.

How do I do it?

	Synchronous face-to-face	Synchronous online	Asynchronous	Tools
Student preparation	No specific preparation is required other than engagement in the session.	No specific preparation is required other than engagement in the session.	If this activity is run after concepts have been covered, ensure that students are aware that this activity will be run.
Your preparation	Set aside 5-10 minutes to facilitate, as well as time after the activity to discuss and provide feedback. Prepare prompt questions – questions can also be associated with groups.	Prepare prompt questions – these can also be associated with groups. You might want to consider setting up small groups (3-4) to provide students with opportunities to provide feedback to their peers.	Prepare prompting questions – questions can be associated with groups.	LMS (to set up groups) Breakout rooms
During activity	Students present their ideas or record them in dot points. Students provide feedback – this could be in the form of a quiz or poll or orally presented.	Students present their ideas or record them in dot points. Students provide feedback – this could be in the form of a quiz or poll or orally presented.	Consider pre-populating a Padlet board. Students present their ideas or record them in dot points and record them in Zoom. Presentations are uploaded in a discussion board. Students provide peer feedback in a discussion board.	LMS Zoom Discussion board
Artefact	Presentation – most likely this will be a text-based presentation but it could be recorded.	Presentation – most likely this will be a text-based presentation but it could be recorded in Zoom.	Presentation recorded in Zoom.

Tips

Let the students know at the start of the session of the plan to use a closure activity – ‘Closing Summary’ (synchronous).
Allocate 5-10 min at the end of the session (synchronous).
Put up the question(s) on the Zoom whiteboard, discussion forum or other technology (e.g. Padlet) for students to write their summaries. Examples of questions include:
- What are the key concepts you have learnt today?
- What is the most interesting/ surprising/exciting aspect of today’s session?
- What concepts do you find difficult to understand/process and why?

Considerations

You can use the closing summary activity in small and large classrooms (synchronous).
For large classrooms students can work in pairs or small groups of 3-4 students (synchronous).
This activity can be adapted to take place online via the discussion board or learning journal (asynchronous).

Resources

McGill Teaching and Learning Services. Strategy Bites: Exit Cards and Closing Summary (2019). Retrieved April 7th 2025 from https://teachingblog.mcgill.ca/2019/01/17/strategy-bites-exit-cards-and-closing-summary/

Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. The Beginning and End of Class (n.d.). Retrieved April 8th 2025 from https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/Beginning-End-Class