If you’re like me, using exit tickets well is always your goal and you love them when you use them. Having that formative assessment after a lesson is a helpful guide for instruction. BUT! They are just so hard to implement. Coming up with the thoughtful question, but making it not too- lengthy, printing, cutting, passing out, collecting… And what about the kids who don’t finish? And what do I do with the information I collect? They’re just a bit clunky. Here are a few thoughts about exit tickets that will make them more efficient.
Make them short.
I suggest one – four questions, but it’s less about how many questions and more about the length of time it should take. We never have a lot of time at the end of the class period and if you want to get it in, make it short. Also, the longer it is, the wider the disparity between student times is. You will have some students who complete it quickly and some that take forever. If it’s created with the intent to be short, more students will complete it.
Set an alarm.
I know, I know… as teachers we have a million alarms set on our phones as reminders of things throughout the day. But, this is helpful if you are going to make sure you leave time to assign the exit ticket.
Use a Confidence Metric.
In addition to a content question, have the students rate their understanding with the content. It is insightful, anecdotal data to have to complement their work.
Go Paperless.
As a math teacher, I love having the problems printed (usually 4 per page), so they can write on the paper and mark up the image. But, this doesn’t always make the most sense. Using a Google Slide is a great alternative and can easily be assigned to the students. And, this makes it easier for absent, quarantined, or distance learning students to access. Additionally, it saves time of passing out and collecting the slips.
Use a template.
Or better yet, use someone else’s pre-made template. Don’t recreate the wheel each time you want to assign an exit ticket. This will save you time and effort. It’s also consistent so after the first few days of exit tickets, students know what they’re going to look like and will find them user-friendly.
If you teach Geometry, you can get my exit tickets by clicking here.
If you don’t teach Geometry or if you want FREE templates to make your own, click here!
Don't Assign an Exit Ticket Every Day.
Be strategic and only assign them when there has been enough exposure, struggle, and work with the content. Make sure they have had a proper chance to fully access the material. This means you won’t have one each day… maybe every two or three days.
Have a plan.
Lastly, know how you’re going to use the students’ results. They are a waste of time if you don’t use them to remediate or inform instruction. If there are a lot of confused students, perhaps change your plan for tomorrow’s lesson. Maybe do a reteach or a mini-lesson to fill in the holes in their understanding. If there is a small group of confused students, maybe pull them in for a small group session.
If an administrator does a walk-through or observation, they will ask. Or they may come back tomorrow to see your plan in action. So, if you assign an exit ticket, be sure to have a plan.
As clunky as it can be to implement exit tickets efficiently, they can be equally as awesome. If you would like a starter set of digital exit ticket templates in Google Slides, click the link above. If you would like to read more about using class time efficiently, check out this post about restroom breaks.
