Unlocking Student Understanding with Exit Tickets

Exit tickets are a simple yet powerful tool for quickly assessing student understanding. By taking just a few minutes at the end of a lesson, these brief prompts can provide valuable insights into student learning and guide future instruction. Additionally, exit tickets facilitate communication between students and teachers, encourage student reflection, and offer feedback on teaching strategies.

Purpose of Exit Tickets

In their book, "Improving Adolescent Literacy" (2004), Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey identify three categories of exit ticket assessment:

1. Prompts that Document Learning: These prompts help students reflect on what they have learned. For example, "Write one thing you learned today" or "Discuss how today’s lesson could be used in the real world."
2. Prompts that Emphasize the Learning Process: These prompts focus on the process of learning. Examples include, "I didn’t understand..." or "Write one question you have about today’s lesson."
3. Prompts to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Instruction: These prompts help teachers assess their teaching methods. For instance, "Did you enjoy working in small groups today?" or "The most important thing I learned today is..."

Creating and Using Exit Tickets

Using exit tickets in your classroom is simple and effective. At the end of the lesson, distribute exit tickets to your students and have them answer the questions. You can print them, use sticky notes, or assign them digitally through platforms like Poll Everywhere, Mentimeter, Padlet, Google Forms. Collect the completed exit tickets by having students submit them to a bin or turning them in directly. Reviewing these responses will help you gauge your students' understanding of the material.

Exit tickets can be used at the end of a class to wrap up the lesson or at the beginning of the next class to assess retention from the previous lesson. They provide an excellent closure activity for nearly any lesson!

Content and Format

When creating an exit ticket, focus on the specific skill or concept you are assessing. Linking the exit ticket to the lesson objective allows you to differentiate between students who have achieved mastery and those who may need reteaching. Exit tickets can also be used to increase participation and encourage reflection. The format of your exit tickets will depend on the needs and abilities of your students. Regardless of the format, the exit ticket should take only a few minutes to complete.

Strategy in Action

Exit tickets are a low-key way for all students to share their understanding before leaving your class. They provide actionable information on what students have learned and where you might need to tweak your instruction. For example, a high school in Pennsylvania uses exit slips to better understand student learning and to adjust instruction accordingly. This practice allows teachers to gather quick feedback and make necessary adjustments to improve student outcomes.

Have you ever used exit tickets in your classroom? Leave a comment below.