Final Countdown

Purpose:  To engage students in reflecting, evaluating, and integrating their learning

Description: This activity emphasized the important role that reflection plays in the learning process. Final Countdown provides learners with a framework for reflection, evaluation, and integration of new knowledge into previously learned material.

Procedure: 

1. Ask students to individually reflect over what they have learned about the topic being reviewed.
2. Using the Final Countdown worksheet, have students write the three most important things they learned about the topic.
3. On the second tier of the Final Countdown, have students write two questions they still have about the topic. These should be questions that they expect to get answers to; likewise, questions they will get answers to.
4. Finally, on the top tier of the Final Countdown, have students write one way in which what they have learned relates or connects to material previously learned.

Rogers, S., Ludington, J., & Graham, S. (1999). Motivation and learning: A teacher's guide to building excitement for learning and igniting the drive for quality. Evergreen, CO: Peak Learning Systems.

Final Countdown Activity Sheet

from Instructional Strategies for Engaging Learners
Guilford County Schools TF, 2002

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