After a lesson, how can you gauge if students have grasped what was taught? There are many types of formative assessments, but one can quickly check for students’ understanding before they head out the door—exit tickets. Exit tickets are low stakes (meaning they are not graded) and help to improve both the teaching and learning process.
In this article, we delve more into the importance of exit tickets in the classroom, plus how educators can implement this formative assessment type.
What Are Exit Tickets in the Classroom?
Exit tickets (or exit slips) are a type of formative assessment that are commonly completed via a slip of paper or an index card, though they can also be completed digitally. Exit tickets shouldn’t be confused with entrance (or entry) tickets. As described in Brown University’s teaching resources, entry tickets focus students’ attention on the day’s topic or ask students to recall background knowledge relevant to the day’s lesson and are administered before lessons. Exit tickets focus on gauging what students know after learning.
What Is the Purpose of an Exit Ticket?
The purpose of exit tickets is to help teachers check for student understanding and progress toward a learning goal. Also, student responses to exit tickets provide educators with information that can inform their teaching in the future.
Should Exit Tickets Be Graded?
Generally, formative assessments are not meant to be graded. Exit tickets are low stakes and are only meant to capture student progress and understanding for the purpose of teacher planning, keeping stress levels down for students. Additionally, since exit tickets can be used to check for student understanding before teaching a concept in the future, exit tickets wouldn’t be graded before that lesson. However, according to the Center for Teaching Excellence, some educators might mark exit tickets as complete or incomplete.
When Should You Use Exit Tickets?
You should use exit tickets after an in-class activity (sometime during class) or after class to allow students to reflect on their learning and think critically. For teachers, exit tickets act as an efficient way to gauge student understanding or mastery of content. Exit tickets are quick to administer—this strategy should take only a few minutes to conduct.
What Type of Assessment Is an Exit Ticket?
Exit ticket assessments are considered informal formative assessments rather than formal assessments; informal assessments usually do not have standardized grading criteria. Formative assessment occurs throughout instruction, focuses on assessment for learning, informs ongoing instruction, and covers a skill or concept. The article “What Is the Purpose of Formative Assessment?” delves more into the importance of formative assessments.
Types of Exit Tickets
Exit tickets are usually completed via a slip of paper, sticky note, or index card. However, exit tickets have evolved and can now be delivered digitally through online polls, surveys, quizzes, and forms. Additionally, exit tickets can be oral tasks (such as verbally responding to a question) or hands-on (such as students drawing a model learned in math or science class).
The resource below provides two exit ticket templates that can be used in any subject area. The first exit ticket asks students to share two facts they learned during the lesson, two things that interest them, and two questions they still have after the lesson.
The second template is a 3-2-1 exit ticket, a common format. This exit ticket includes the following: three things I learned about today, two things I want to learn more about, and one question I still have. However, the prompts can vary.
For math teachers, the following math exit tickets from our HMH Into Math program are quick to implement. Feel free to adapt the ones we provide to what you’re teaching or use these exit tickets as inspiration for writing your own.
- Download Math Exit Ticket (Grades 1–2, addition)
- Download Math Exit Ticket (Grades 3–4, finding quotients)
- Download Math Exit Ticket (Grades 3–4, distributive property)
- Download Math Exit Ticket (Grades 5–6, evaluate an expression)
- Download Math Exit Ticket (Algebra 1)
How to Create an Exit Ticket
Ultimately, it is up to you to use an exit ticket that is most effective for your teaching, so you may be interested in creating your own. Before creating an exit ticket, it helps to ask the following: what information do I need to support student learning? Maybe you plan to cover an idea or concept the next day? Exit tickets provide valuable information about student progress toward a learning goal, so it helps to know how much support is still needed. The most effective exit tickets are concise and simple for students to understand with clear directions (even if they are unsure how to answer). Exit tickets should take at most five minutes to complete.
Knowing the best format to use is essential. Perhaps you’ll question students and have them jot down their responses on index cards. Or maybe you’ll find an online poll or quiz more effective. Will you differentiate your exit tickets? For example, you might consider providing students with different prompts based on where they fall on the achievement spectrum.
How to Use Exit Tickets: Strategies and Tips
So, what happens after students complete their exit tickets and you have analyzed the responses? The purpose and meaning of exit tickets can vary, so here are some strategies to help you effectively use this formative assessment type.
- Determine the purpose for assessing: It’s a general best practice across all assessments to determine the purpose of the assessment, including the purpose of exit tickets. An exit ticket’s purpose should be clear so that the ticket can be as short as possible, and the student responses can be used quickly and in the right way.
- Make exit tickets mandatory: Many teachers don’t allow students to leave without completing and turning in their exit tickets, ensuring students are responsible for their learning.
- Implement action steps: The article “Developing a Student Exit Slips Strategy for Formative Assessment” provides exit ticket strategies to help educators make the most out of this formative assessment type. One of the effective strategies the article lists is to be ready to implement action steps. Educators should be prepared to use exit tickets to drive upcoming lessons and reteach misconceptions in small groups.
- Plan for upcoming classes: Using exit tickets in the classroom allows educators to gain valuable information that can help them plan their upcoming classes, such as ideas or concepts to focus on.
- Provide feedback: Rather than grading, provide students with constructive feedback on misconceptions they might have or with the correct answers.
- Use exit tickets for data-driven instruction: Data-driven instruction is a method of making instructional decisions based on analyzing data. Educators can use the information gained from exit tickets to differentiate instruction. Additionally, as the article “Exit Tickets” explains, student responses can help teachers understand whether they should clarify, reteach, or extend ideas; introduce new ideas; offer practice; or restructure future instructional activities.
How Can Exit Tickets Help to Differentiate Instruction?
Since exit tickets can be used to inform teaching, educators can also use exit tickets to differentiate instruction. Differentiated instruction is an approach that allows every student in the class to work toward the same learning objective, but how students achieve the objective can vary based on their strengths, challenges, or interests. Exit tickets give educators insight into what students know or do not know and can help identify where students need additional support. Based on the information gathered from exit tickets, educators can differentiate instruction based on students’ strengths (students who did not meet the learning goal, those who met the learning goal, and experts) or provide differentiated assignments to support individual learning needs.
Exit tickets can be differentiated as well. Educators can personalize exit tickets, providing a variety of prompts for students. How students respond to prompts can also be differentiated; for example, students can decide to respond by writing a few sentences or drawing a diagram.
Why Else Are Exit Tickets Important in Your Classroom?
Exit tickets provide a quick way to assess student learning and are an invaluable tool for informing and even differentiating instruction. There are plenty of additional benefits of exit tickets, too; for example, exit tickets can turn the tables and give students the chance to provide feedback. For example, an exit ticket might ask students if they enjoyed a new method you used to teach, such as using small-group activities.
Overall, using exit tickets as formative assessment is popular for a reason—exit tickets are quick to administer but still offer valuable insight into student learning. Share your classroom exit ticket ideas with us at shaped@hmhco.com or reach out on Instagram or Facebook.
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