Lesson Closure Reflection
writingspeakingcommunicationreviewindividualnone prep3-5 min
A brief, structured moment at the end of class where students reflect on their own learning. Not a summary of content, but a reflection on the process: What did I do? What worked? What will I do differently?
The Reflection Questions
Choose 2–3 of these to rotate across lessons:
- What did I understand best in today's lesson?
- What did I do well in this class?
- What's one thing I want to practise more?
- Where did I get stuck, and how did I get unstuck (or didn't)?
- What did a classmate do that I want to try?
- What will I do differently tomorrow?
- How does today's learning connect to something I already knew?
Procedure
- Last 3 minutes of class. Teacher announces the day's reflection questions.
- Students write silently (or record in a reflection journal).
- Optional: 1–2 volunteers share.
- Keep going into next week — no extended feedback discussion.
Why It Works
- Self-regulated learning: naming one's own process builds metacognitive skill.
- Consolidation: the act of reflecting rehearses and integrates what happened.
- Long-term growth vs lesson-level content: shifts focus from "what did I learn?" to "how did I learn?"
- Accumulates: a term of reflections reveals growth patterns even the student hadn't noticed.
Variations
- Paired reflection: pairs share one sentence, then listen.
- Traffic-light reflection: green (I'm confident), yellow (I need more practice), red (I'm still confused). Traffic-light data drives next lesson.
- Long-form reflection journal: once a week, a longer reflective entry synthesising patterns across several lessons.
- Audio reflection: record a 60-second voice note.
- Goal-linked reflection: tie the reflection to the Goal-Setting Pair goal from last week. Progress?
Tips
- Don't skip. Even if running late — 90 seconds of reflection is worth it.
- Vary questions to prevent routine auto-fill.
- Don't grade reflections. They're for the learner, not the teacher's gradebook.
- Teacher also reflects: occasionally, share a brief teacher reflection. Models the behaviour.
Source
Hattie, J. & Timperley, H. (2007) The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research. Schön (1983) The Reflective Practitioner on reflection-on-action. Assessment-for-learning routines (Black et al. 2003).