EDUCATOR SPOTLIGHT | YEAR END PRACTICES

Educator Spotlight
Written By Josh Morales

Ending The School Year Strong

by Stephanie Clagnaz, Ed.D.


The end of the school year brings unique challenges: state testing, requiring a unique and strategic focus; keeping students engaged in learning; reflecting on how the year has gone based on reflective practice centered on student learning data; and beginning plans for a restful summer break while considering initial plans for next year. As we muddle through these competing priorities, how can we stay focused on meaningful learning that will continue to keep our students engaged and continue to help them to progress? Here are a few strategies to consider.


Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing

We’ve begun the reflective process to recap what took place this school year. We look at what we set out to accomplish, reviewing student learning data to determine if our plans have helped learning to progress. With weeks left until summer break, it is time to evaluate what comes next. At this point in the school year, ask, “What do students need most right now?” Of course, learning should remain central as we answer this question, but relationships with students as well as engagement and agency are also critical to our response. While there may be the temptation to continue doing what we’ve done all year, push yourself to answer the question, “What do students need most right now?” Remember that the school year is not over yet and there are many possibilities that may, in fact, make a huge difference in the lives and learning of students. 


When considering academics as the year winds down, focus instruction in response to student learning data and stay committed to power standards that students need most. These standards should have endurance, leverage, and are essential to the next level of instruction (Doug Reeves, 2000). Standards that have endurance go well beyond student success on standardized tests. Keep instruction connected to key skills and knowledge that students must demonstrate. If a standard has leverage, it will connect to student success in other standards. Reeves gives the example of the connection between proficiency in informational writing and proficiency in math, science, or social studies. Similarly, when students make inferences from charts or graphs in math class, they are more likely to be able to draw conclusions from information they receive in a science lab or in a social studies lesson. Finally, engage students in the critical educational, behavioral, and organizational needs that teachers of the next grade level must observe for students to be successful. Stay focused on the most important standards at the end of the school year.


Connection and Relationship

Keep relationships with students strong! Greet students at the doors of the school and at the doors of classrooms to make sure that students’ feeling of belonging continues to be evident. Welcome them and continue that welcome throughout the days and weeks as the year winds down. While some may start to lose energy as summer break approaches, do whatever you can to continue to make schools and classrooms a welcoming place. Be patient with students, especially with those who push boundaries. If you’ve struggled to maintain healthy relationships with any individual students this year, now is the time to establish and develop them. Teacher mindset will have a major effect on students, so stay positive. Consider engaging students in co-creating curricular goals, staying true to academic standards, but incorporating student voice in how your standards will be executed; giving students choice in how they demonstrate what they have learned; and celebrating student learning.  


When incorporating student voice in curricular choices to keep them connected, consider keeping them active. Look for opportunities to get students outdoors and incorporate critical learning standards in real-world problem solving activities. When co-designing an end-year unit with your students, create cooperative learning groups so that social emotional skills are built into the learning process. Think about project-based learning in which students can exercise academic, social-emotional, and organizational skills. Are there learning standards that can be woven into projects that can help students to solve a community-based inquiry question? Can the family backgrounds of students be incorporated into the inquiry? End the year with a commitment to keep students connected to their learning and to one another. Keep relationships with students strong until the last day of school.


Student Engagement, Motivation, and Agency

Students sometimes lose focus and motivation at the end of the year. Take the time to model how students can stay focused. Kate Umstatter, who uses Responsive Classroom strategies, recommends that teachers explicitly teach and reteach what a student’s eyes, mouth, hands, and bodies should look like when they are focused and engaged in their work. Set attainable goals for these last few months: if you want students to read independently for 20 minutes by the end of the month, begin with 8 minutes and build slowly until their goal is reached. Reflect with students regularly to help them realize what they are doing well and what they need to work on in order to achieve their goals. Finally, model how to refocus. If students lose their motivation, consider teaching mindfulness techniques, such as deep breathing, to get themselves back on track and to refrain from distracting classmates. 


The final months of any school year provide an opportunity for students to exercise agency. The Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework directs us to teach students how to use their voices to express the need for challenging work and to advocate for varied ways of learning. The Framework indicates that students should be encouraged to challenge themselves to do more than what is academically comfortable.  Dr. Charles Cole, III teaches us that “one of the first steps in fostering student agency is helping students find and express their voice. This involves creating a classroom environment where students feel safe and valued when sharing their thoughts, opinions, and ideas. Encouraging open dialogue, active listening, and respectful feedback are crucial in helping students feel confident in expressing themselves and taking ownership of their learning.” The end of the school year is a perfect time to create opportunities to increase student agency. 


During the final months of the school year, educators might need additional support to boost their practice. If you need coaching or professional development to energize the final months of the school year, contact LEDbetter today! We are available to develop a short term plan to provide the end-year support that you may need. Our approach is individualized; we have no predetermined plan that we deliver to all schools, but rather listen to your unique needs and act quickly to offer support that speaks exclusively to your needs. 


Josh Morales
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