Whether you have six days left or six weeks, we are all feeling the countdown. This time of year is a rollercoaster of emotions, trying to find energy to finish it out and wrestling with saying goodbye. Students and teachers both know summer is coming, and if you work with a grade that is graduating, it is even more emotional and chaotic.
Add all those emotions to the scheduling of end of year trips, assemblies, ceremonies, and testing, then throw on extra close-out tasks and planning becomes tricky. So how do you continue to allow for authentic learning at the end of the school year?
With projects.
It is tempting to just go day to day or week to week finding activities that will work with specific scheduling changes, but that ends up being more work and the lack of consistency makes student behaviors even more unpredictable. Instead, giving students an end of year project allows them to exercise the autonomy they’ve developed this school year, direct their own learning, and continue to learn authentically without your coming up with different daily plans.
I wanted to share some ideas to help you keep your Language Arts classroom going while taking that planning off of your to do list so I’ve rounded up a few options from fellow teacher-authors to share.
End of Year ELA Research Projects
Student Driven Inquiry Project- I’ve used this at different times of the school year and it is always a student favorite. Students pick an area of interest to themselves to research and share with the class. Building towards final presentations keeps students motivated- they don’t want to have nothing to share- and student choice supports engagement. My teaching partner also called this “You be the Teacher” because students would teach the class. Check it out>>
Endangered Animal Research Project– This was a huge hit the year I had an animal loving class in 5th grade. To limit the need for devices I printed information about each animal from the World WildLife Fund, but students can also complete their own research if you still have devices. Students who finished in time also write creative stories about their animals to show the risks they face. Check it out>>
Show What You’ve Learned/ Hands-On End of Year ELA Projects
Make a Board Game- Our math teacher has dibs on this idea at my current school as an end of year project, and she has a very elaborate process that students are going through to build their board games, but some of my favorites so far are some of the simplest. Creating a board game is also a great way for students to show what they’ve learned in Language Arts and this product from Coach’s Corner makes it incredibly easy to implement. Check it out>>
Student One Pager- I love this for a fun and creative project that last week of school when I’m not grading anything else. I’ve had students make one pagers as summative projects earlier in the year, but this one is much more free-spirited. Students get to share memories, highlights and lowlights of their school year. I also love this because it gives me a chance to see what they remembered/ most enjoyed outside of the end of year survey I give them which helps me reflect on how to have an even stronger classroom and curriculum next year. Check it out>>
Digital Portfolio with Adobe Express- This requires a little more planning and support, but I’ve found my students take to creating in Adobe Express pretty quickly and after they’ve gotten started don’t need too much support as long as they have a good rubric or sample. I don’t have a specific resource to recommend, but Adobe has created a video tutorial that is really helpful in thinking about this project.n
P.S. Looking for how to simply that physical close-out of the classroom? Angela Watson’s approach has saved me so much! Check out her blog post and podcast episode about this.
Good luck in your final weeks of the 23-24 school year and happy countdown!
