As teachers, dismissing students is very much a part of our daily routine. If we are class or homeroom teachers (as opposed to subject teachers), we might do it many times with the same group, even in one day.
There really isn’t a correct way to do it. Often, it will depend on the time, the context, and the preferences of everyone involved.
In some cases, it will be best to send everyone off at the same time, after clear instructions, if required. Especially if the situation is a timely transition, this might be best. Alternatively, it may be more appropriate to send students off in small groups.
Where we can, for a dismissal from a class or group activity, it can be beneficial to make it both student-centered and focused on practicing skills. Allowing a student to lead the dismissal of their friends gives responsibility and reinforces routine. It can also provide an opportunity to practice polite language, or, in an ESL context, language itself. We could even turn the process of being dismissed into a game or role-play scenario, making it memorable while still practicing the skills of following a procedure, albeit a different one.
Students can also have a very active task too — think a type of exit ticket.
Since I first began working in the early years, two years ago, I have implemented an activity of stating criteria for being dismissed. It started out being about clothes. For example, “If you are wearing blue socks, you can go.” I expanded it slightly from there to include likes; for example, “If you like dinosaurs, you can go.”
Usage has continued to diversify, and most recently I have included all types of criteria. “If you have two siblings, you can go…” “If you have a younger sister, you can go…” “If you have travelled to Japan, you can go…” “If you have a pet turtle, you can go…” “If your socks and shoes are the same colour, you can go.”
Much of this relates to letters and the written forms of names, as students are in the early stages of reading and writing. For example, “If you have seven letters in your name, you can go.” “If the first letter of your name is an L, you can go.” “If the fourth letter of your name is a y, you can go.”
Today, when I came to the last person, I even stopped and asked him, “Tell me anything you want to share about yourself,” allowing him to choose a category and to practice speaking. Indeed, speaking practice can be combined with all of the above if students then have to make their own sentence related to the criteria for which they are being dismissed as they go.
This activity is especially useful, relevant, and effective in the early years, and particularly for ESL learners. However, there is no reason why it couldn’t be extended to different contexts, given the listening requirements. It would be most beneficial for students to be stretched in their zone of proximal development. However, even if less mental load is needed in comprehension, it could still be more varied than simply saying names. In all contexts, there could then be the opportunity for students to lead this routine.
What can we take away then? Well, on the one hand, an activity like this is worth listening out for as an approach we could try. More deeply, remember dismissals can occur and be run in a variety of different ways; fit them to the context, never forgetting that they could be opportunities to practice new skills. More deeply still, remember to value and treasure every moment with your students; every transition; every part of your class or day. They can often happen in so many different ways.