Why Use Exit Tickets

Exit tickets are a quick way to check student understanding on the topic they are studying in class.  This activity can be done one a week or daily depending on the material being taught.

If the exit ticket is well written, the resulting information can give the teacher enough data to determine if the students are ready to move on or if they need to be retaught the material.

When designing an exit ticket, it should be linked to the lesson objective and focus only on the skill or concept for that day.  Multiple choice questions, or short answers are good types of questions for exit tickets.  Each ticket should have three to five questions that can be answered in a few minutes.

Do not use yes or no questions because they give no real information.  The questions should assess understanding, demonstrate the concept, or apply the concept so the teacher really knows what the student understands.  It is best to prepare the questions the day before.  Some teachers write the exit ticket first, then create the lesson so the material is covered properly.

The exit ticket can be prepared to pass out to students or it could be written on the board so students write their answers on a 3 x 5 card, or on an email or post the answer in Google Classroom. One can also up load the questions to a Google form, or a program designed to do exit tickets.  If you use a Google form, you can upload the results to a Google Doc and get the information into a spread sheet.

It is important to let students know the information on the exit ticket is not being graded but is being used to determine their level of understanding.  Once you have the results you can determine if you need to reteach the concept, move on, or work on tweaking their understanding.  You can decide if half the class needs more independent practice while you do some small group instruction to strengthen their understanding.

Exit tickets can be used to preview a topic you are planning to teach.  It gives you a chance to ascertain their previous knowledge or activate it.  If you don't have time to create a written exit ticket you can ask them a question and have them answer it on their way out of the room.  Either way, exit tickets need to be analyzed as soon as possible so the information can be used.

From the students point of view, exit tickets require them to synthesize the day's lesson and challenge them to apply the concept because they have to think about the material and it also highlights any confusion they still have.

There are four types of exit tickets that can be used in the classroom.  The first is a prompt that provides formative assessment.  The second, stimulates self analysis when the teacher asks "How hard did you work?" or "What could you have done better today?".  Although neither question asks about the material, they do address student effort.

The third prompt asks how certain instructional strategies helped students learn such as asking if the group work helped the student understand the material better.  The last type is the least common type of prompt in which the teacher asks what can they do to help the students learn the material better.

I'd love to hear what you think.  I like the idea and know that I know more about exit tickets, I plan to use them in class a bit more often than I use them.