Four fantastic ways to end a TEFL lesson

For English teachers, every second counts. How you finish a class is just as important as how you start it, and sticking the landing is an incredibly satisfying feeling for a TEFL teacher.

In a TEFL class, students absorb a lot of important information. In the final minutes, it’s about making it stick. While icebreaker activities and classroom management are key for starting and maintaining a class, a strong ending is just as important. It makes lessons memorable, builds momentum, and creates genuine excitement for the next class.

Here are four straightforward, practical ideas for finishing a TEFL class as strongly as possible.

1. Focus on class engagement with ‘3-2-1’

‘3-2-1’ is a dynamic closing exercise for any age group. It’s perfect for consolidating the key messages from a lesson, and it gives students plenty to think about for next time. 

By recalling key words and phrases through ‘gamification’ and speaking with their classmates, students can build retention and confidence. ‘3-2-1’ also helps students think about how they’re going to speak English in different ways, and use different clauses and tenses without realising it.

Break the lesson down into three key elements. Then, challenge your class to remember what they’ve learned. At the end of a period, ask students for:

• 3 takeaways 
• 2 related questions to ask their classmates
• 1 interesting fact

Let’s say you’re teaching 10-12-year-olds about directions. Ideally, a student might respond by:

• Remembering the words “town centre”, “roundabout” and “train station”
• Asking classmates: “Where is the nearest bus stop?” and “How would I tell someone how to find the school playground?”
• Offering a fact or reflection: “How I’d get to the cinema”

With 3-2-1, your most recent lesson can turn into a story, essay, or conversation about a student’s own experiences, and a chance to build key vocabulary. Teachers can set parts of 3-2-1 as homework, which provides some continuity for the start of the next class.

2. Reflect and plan with ‘Two things to think about’

Just as self-reflection is essential for teachers , allowing students to draw on what they’ve just heard is crucial for their progress. That’s why straightforward reflective exercises are so popular in the classroom.

‘Two things to think about’ involves applying what they’ve just learned in the classroom to something they care about. By doing this, a teacher puts English into a learner’s outside experiences.

Ask students to think about one thing they’ve taken away and another thing to consider for next time. For example, if you’ve been working on the past tense, ask students to:

• Sum up what they’ve learned, using the past tense
• For next time, note down some upcoming activities or events to discuss

For older or more advanced students, consider extending this task by assigning it as homework. Ask them to connect the lesson to a film clip , a song , or a podcast episode that they can use next time. This creates a sense of flow and encourages curiosity and self-directed learning.

This activity doesn’t take much planning, but it’s a low-effort, high-impact way to create momentum from one lesson to the next.

3. Maintain focus and competition with ‘Word of the Day’

If you want students to hang on your every word, ‘Word of the Day’ is a great exercise that turns listening into a game. 

‘Word of the Day’ is about attention, motivation and retention. It’s an example of Gamification, a proven technique in language teaching that sparks a competitive spirit and provides real-time updates on students’ progress. It can also put students in a good mood - if they get the word right, they’ll come to the next lesson feeling good about their abilities.

Students should be excited about this activity, especially if it leads to a reward. They’ll connect the Word of the Day with achievement, and even if they get it wrong, it will still be a significant learning moment. 

Here’s how it works: 

• Pick a word that’s related to the day’s lesson. 
• At the start of a class, write a word on the board, say it out loud, or simply tell them to listen for a particular word without revealing what it is. They aren’t allowed to write it down.
• Use the word naturally a few times. For younger students or near-beginners, teachers can make it obvious when using the Word of the Day. With more experienced learners, make it more subtle. 
• Ask your students to guess the Word of the Day . If they get it right, they can build a ‘streak’. Think of some fun prizes for getting the right word in consecutive classes and hitting milestones.

If you want your students to stay alert and create a positive, competitive atmosphere, a game like ‘Word of the Day’ can be ideal. 

4. Test retention and raise the stakes with an ‘Exit Quiz’

Another way to finish strong is with an Exit Quiz.

An Exit Quiz should provide a pressure-free environment. It enables teachers to monitor progress and identify strengths and weaknesses in their lesson planning and delivery. If students are getting the same right and wrong answers, it might be because of the structure of your exercises.

Just like ‘Word of the Day’, an Exit Quiz can create a fun, competitive environment in the TEFL classroom and boost the mood of students who get the correct answers. Ideally, learners will come to the next class motivated to achieve a perfect score, and they might even study the material at home to ace the quiz.

Here’s how to do it:

• Prepare some questions on the lesson you’ve just taught, with difficulty varying by age and level.  
• Read out the questions and ask students to write down their answers, or draw names from the class and set up a head-to-head competition. Even choosing the students can be fun if you use a Wheel of Names or a Name Drawer tool .
• Alternatively, hand out worksheets summarising the key points of a lesson, and after 5 minutes, ask students to mark each other’s quiz answers.
• Once the quizzes are marked, you can announce the top scorers and even create a leaderboard.

Students want to get answers right, enjoy some healthy competition and grow their vocabulary. If they know a quiz is coming, they’re likely to pay more attention, and the reward isn’t just a high score - it’s real progress. 

Where one lesson ends, another begins

Creating great endings for your lessons isn’t just a way to wrap things up smoothly. It’s about keeping your learners engaged and reinforcing the key points you've covered. Strong endings make what you’ve taught more memorable - and more likely to be absorbed by your students. Here are some key takeaways to remember:

• Tasks like ‘3-2-1’ or ‘Two things to think about’ don’t just sum up a lesson. They give students a reason to care about the next one
• Exit quizzes and Word of the Day can help to build excitement for a class through gamification and competition
• If classes are engaging the whole way through, your students will pay attention and make progress

Coming up with fun endings for TEFL lessons is a way for teachers to be creative , react to their students’ learning styles, and show strong classroom management . Great endings set the scene for the next lesson, and in language learning, momentum is everything.

Want to hear from teachers who have completed a TEFL course and taken on the world? Visit our Graduate Stories page and read about teaching experiences from around the globe.