From an instructional perspective, the end of the school year can be a tricky time. In theory, it’s a time when students should be reviewing what they’ve learned in order to pass final assessments; in practice, reviewing lots of content is hard, and both teacher and student motivation can be low.

As a Modern Classroom educator, however, you can use blended, self-paced instruction to make end-of-year reviews more efficient, more effective, and more engaging. Here’s how:

1. Reorganize your LMS.

   Over the course of the school year, you’ve surely curated a lot of content - when it comes time for review, there’s no need to create any more! You just need to make what you’ve already created easy to find. Go back in and make sure that students can access everything you’ve built for their own review purposes.
   

2. Create a checklist.

   Identify what students must know how to do for their final assessments, and then share those lists with them. Students should take the time to work through these lists, highlighting the things they most need to revisit and sharing those needs with you. From there, they need only log back in to your LMS - and you can plan your own time according to the topics you know your students want to cover.

3. Make review fun!

   Lead a friendly competition: who can complete the most review exercises? Or, give your students a class challenge: if everyone reviews at least three topics, you’ll bring candy on exam day. Be creative here - you’ll know better than I will what will motivate your students! The more they see review as fun, the more your students will learn.

Best of all, none of these ideas should require too much effort from you! You’ve put in the hard work to create great content all year, so now’s the time for you to step back and let your students drive their learning.

Some day, when your students are preparing for college exams and know exactly how to prepare independently for an end-of-year assessment, they’ll have you to thank.