Finishing Strong - the last 8 weeks

Coming back from a break in the middle of the semester it is sometimes hard to switch gears into school mode again, so much more so for our learners.   Reminding students of your course objectives can help them focus their learning and motivate them to stongly finish the semester.  Having a short discussion with students about what they have learned and what they are expecting to learn can help you focus your instructional time.

A few ideas to help your students jump back into the class and finish the last eight weeks well are:

1.  If you started your semester with an Syllabus quiz, give the quiz again, or modify it slightly to focus on the last half of the semester. 
2. Show a PowerPoint slideshow as students enter the room with course objectives and upcoming due dates. 
3. Take a few minutes at the start of your next class to review objectives. 
4. Remind students of the successes they have accomplished so far, then discuss your expectations for the rest of the semester.  
5. Use a discussion forum as a litmus test to gain an understanding of how well students are meeting your objectives by asking broad content questions.  
6. Have a class discussion asking broad questions about content already covered can help you understand what they have learned.   Questions related to future objectives will help you plan for the last half of your semester. Which may save you class time.
7. Create a concept web of content covered so far.