Increase Students’ Learning and Growth with an End-of-Year “Wrap Up” 

How does your student typically wrap up the end of their year? If the answer is “drops their backpack in a corner, where it will stay—untouched—until the next school year,” then there’s a valuable learning opportunity that’s being missed!

We often think of the start of a school year as a time to set goals and think about what we want to do differently this time around. But the end-of-year transition can be an equally important opportunity for reflection and growth. In some ways, it’s an even better time to reflect. Since the past year’s experiences are still fresh, it’s much easier for students to identify areas for improvement and recognize the costs of bad habits (or the benefits of good ones!)

“When I was the head teaching assistant for Cornell’s ‘Introduction to Behavior’ course, I set aside time at the end of the year to review the information we covered and note what went well and what I wanted to improve and change for next year. The whole process only took an hour or so, and at the start of the following year, I was always so grateful to have this information. 

 

I inevitably discovered things in these notes that had a major impact on how I ran the class, but that I’d completely forgotten about over the course of the summer! Even after finishing that class, I’ve found this to be a helpful exercise anytime I’m wrapping up a phase of my life and transitioning to something new.” 

 

–Maggie Wray, Founder and CEO of Creating Positive Futures

This same approach can be used by students at the end of the year to capture valuable insights and lessons that will help them in the following year. Here are three simple steps students can take to wrap up their year:

1. Review information from the past year

This review helps students look back over the year and identify what went well and what didn’t. To start this review, students can:

• Review their final grades from the year. Are there certain grades that turned out better than expected? Worse than anticipated? If they set goals at the start of the year, how do their grades compare to those goals?
• Look at the weighted scores for each type of assignment. Were some assignments weighted more heavily than others? 
• Flip through class binders and look over notes, assignments, papers, quizzes, and tests. How detailed and helpful are their notes? Are there certain lessons that were harder for them than others? How did their performance change over the course of the year?

The point of this step is not to judge or criticize but to notice patterns and get a complete picture of the situation. Encourage your student to treat this like a treasure hunt, where they look for clues about strengths and successes, as well as potential areas for improvement.

2. Identify lessons learned

Once your student has reviewed their materials from the year, they can use that information to identify lessons. Some questions students can consider at this point might include:

• What knowledge do I have now that I didn’t have at the beginning of the school year?
• What am I better at doing now than I used to be?
• What have I learned about myself?
• While reviewing the information from my courses, what am I noticing about how this information was organized and how easy it was to find?  What lessons can I learn from this?

For classes, tests, projects, etc. that went well:

• What did I do to create that outcome?
• What lessons can I take from this experience, and use again in the future?
• Where else in my life could it be useful to apply this same approach I used here?

For experiences that didn’t turn out as well:

• What can I learn from this experience?
• What do I want to change about my approach next time?
• What could I do differently in the future to get better results?

3. Organize and store the information

Reflecting back on what’s been learned over the course of the year is a valuable exercise. But if these lessons aren’t recorded somewhere, they’ll quickly be forgotten. During this step, students make note of any insights, observations, and plans they’ve discovered. They can then set a reminder for themselves to review the information at the start of the following school year.

In addition to recording and storing key insights, this is also a great time to organize and store all of your students’ past papers. 

Usually, this will involve:

• Deciding what to keep and what to throw away. 
• Finding a good place to store the information. 

A few notes to keep in mind during this process:

Make sure to get your student’s permission before diving into this process with them. Otherwise, they may feel like you’re judging and analyzing them.

Have a parent or coach present during this process to re-frame upsetting experiences as positive opportunities for learning and growth. No matter how the year went, the goal of this wrap-up is to help the student accept the results, take responsibility for their role in the situation, and identify ways to make things better next time.

If you think your student might resist taking the time to do this activity, consider making this a family event and inviting them to participate. In this scenario, everyone would do their own self-evaluation and then share what they’ve learned and what they plan to change in the future. 

If your student is creative, you might propose that they find a creative, artistic way to record the lessons and insights from this exercise, rather than just writing down a list on paper. 

If you have a younger student, or a child who is very visual, they might enjoy using pictures instead of words to capture these insights.

How Coaching Can Help

Guiding students through this end-of-year wrap-up process can be even more impactful with the help of a coach. During the summer months, our coaches provide a structured and supportive environment to explore learnings, identify areas for improvement, and develop the skills needed to achieve your student’s goals.

If you think your student would benefit from coaching this summer, we’re here to help! In a free parent strategy call, we’ll talk through your areas of concern and come up with strategies to support your student.