Saying goodbye in the end of an online class can be so hard! It is the saddest time of our class (or the happiest if you had a tough student, perhaps!) and we want to leave on a positive note.
In a PPP format, the goodbye song can act as the “closer activity’ at the end of the scaffolded lesson.
Here are my favorite ways to say goodbye, extend and leave on a high note!
End (and Extend) with Flair
Remember that you want to finish strong and on a great positive note. Especially with a trial student, you only have 30 minutes to work hard and build a relationship and rapport with your student. You don’t want to throw it all away with a weak ending!
Your ending should do the following:
Saying Good-bye In An Online Class: Top Tips
Celebrate: Make sure to celebrate the student’s accomplishments. Give the student lots of thumbs up and be sure to review that they received all five stars or learned all the material or hit their target learning goals (whatever your platform uses as rewards.)
Review: what you learned: Students and parents want to feel proud of what they learned. Review the vocabulary to show them how far they’ve come!
Extend: Have a Plan B Extension for your ESL Class. The following activities will give you an opportunity to extend in case you end a little early and need to keep the class going to fit your minimum time requirement.
Sing a Goodbye song
Everyone loves a good song. Ideally, use a song that can be extended. If you have an extra minute and need to fill in some awkward silence, a song that can be extended forever and let the student independently make lyrics is the best kind of song to pick.
Send Hearts
Send some love by making hearts with your hands. Make Korean-style hand hearts, arm hearts, and even some full-body hearts! Make sure your students use Total Physical Response to echo your movements and you can teach them to say “thank you” while doing it to tie the learning of the word to the action.
Here are ten fun K-pop inspired hearts to make with your hands and make your student smile.
Say Bye to New Words
Say goodbye is a great time to review. Sometimes, I like to have the student say goodbye to every new word they learned. This helps review vocabulary. It also gives the student a sense of accomplishment to see they have accomplished their learning goals.
Saying goodbye to each new word is a great way to repeat their vocabulary and also be a little silly. For example, if we are learning about farm animals, you can have the student say goodbye to every single animal at the end of class as you circle each new word:
“goodbye lamb, goodbye duck, goodbye tractor, goodbye farm”.
The best part about this is you can extend quite easily.
Wave Bye to Your Toys
Encourage the student to bring their toys and say goodbye to every single one. Take turns. This works great if you have an interactive classroom background. Be silly and hide behind your toy. Have the toys say goodbye to each other, too. Goodbye (insert toy). For example:
“Goodbye cat! Goodbye Teddy Bear! Goodbye Truck! Goodbye Peppa Pig!” Don’t be afraid to be silly…” Goodbye pencil!” and “Goodbye eraser” and so on.
Bottom Line: Saying goodbye at the end of an online class should leave a great impression, give you a chance to extend and fill extra time, and review information (if needed).
Related Keywords and Phrases: closer activities, PPP closer activity, extending ESL lesson
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
– Dr. Seuss
