This is such an easy hack that can completely transform your classroom! I print these little green exit tickets once a year and can use them for all my classes to give students accountability and quick verbal feedback. Read on for more details and for a FREEBIE at the end.
Exit tickets are nothing new. I have been trained for years in AVID strategies and they are weaved in and out of every lesson and unit. I love them in theory but in practice they are such a time, energy, and resource waste!
Overall Exit Tickets or a Ticket Out The Door is a quick assessment of the lesson for the day or sometimes a reflection. The problem is you would have to either pre-think, pre-print, or pre-prepare in someway and if your lesson doesn't go according to plan the exit ticket is useless.
For example, if you are giving a lesson on how to multiply using decimals, you might have an exit ticket with a few practice problems for students to do on the way out the door. My issue was what to do next? Do I really correct every single exit ticket and give written feedback and pass back the next day? I had over 150 students, there was no way!
Enter --> Permanent Exit Tickets.
These little laminated green tickets saved me so much time and energy and I was able to give so much more meaningful feedback immediately to every student.
Here is how I use them in my classroom:
I printed simple exit tickets and laminated, create extra so you will only do it 1x per year!
I reviewed the expectations with the students. Here were my rules.
If you have an exit ticket you can leave. It's your ticket out the door. Simple as that. Occasionally I would throw in a "If you have an exit ticket go ahead and line up at the door early!" Or even "If you have an exit ticket you can leave 10 seconds early 🤫"
I want to throw in a disclaimer here...
This is not a way to punish students.
This is not a reason to hold students during their passing time or breaks to do work.
This should not humiliate or call students out.
Make it work for you and your relationships with your students.
-Let me break this down-
My exit tickets were directly related to the lesson I gave that day.
The questions or prompts should be simple and straight forward.
It should be a direct assessment of the standard or lesson you gave.
For Example: I just taught a lesson on conjugating verbs in Spanish and now they have to do a 10 question assignment for practice. Their exit ticket is the first two questions of that assignment.
If 90-95% of the class isn't finishing, the exit ticket is too hard or too long.
I walk around with the stack of green exit tickets and as students finish the first two they raise their hand for feedback, if they got them correct they get a green ticket. If I need to give feedback I just tell them to call me back over when they correct it.
As I am walking around during work time, I am easily able to see who has green tickets already and who still needs them. I can check in with students who haven't finished before it's too late.
I'm repeatedly reminding students to raise their hand to get an exit ticket.
I look up and there is 5 minutes left of class, I see 2 students still working without an exit ticket. I quickly conference with each one to be sure they got at least the first one or understand how to do it. I give them a ticket as well.
1 minute until the bell rings I am at the door ready to collect the tickets back.
Bell rings - students exit and give me their tickets.
During our work time today I have checked in with every student!
Not everyday is this perfect. As we know, we must always pivot! Let's go over common errors.
What happens if lot's of students aren't done?
This happens often, I talked too much or the lesson went long and I didn't give enough work time. That's on me and if I can see it ahead of time I just won't do an exit ticket. It's too much work to rush it.
If I didn't catch it and already assigned an exit ticket but notice not many are finishing, i'll quickly just walk around and see what students have so far and hand out tickets. OR I will be totally clear with students, we just don't have time for the tickets today, get as much done as you can but don't worry about them today.
Do you do them everyday?
NO! I save them for days where we have a good chunk of work time on a specific skill. Or sometimes if I notice lots of students are off task or not focusing, i'll quickly assign one. If they are working on a project I can say, "Okay your outline is the exit ticket today, raise your hand when you are ready for me!" I didn't plan that ahead of time, I can just use the vibes of the room :)
What if a student is just off task and never does the work or refuses?
Not exactly rare. Sometimes these exit tickets can trigger students in a negative way. You have to know your students and the best way to get through to them. If a student is off task the exit ticket should motivate them, if it doesn't the natural consequence is they have to stay after for a few seconds and talk with me. We can move on from there as to why and the next steps. I never hold them after for more than 30 seconds. It's a quick, "Hey what happened today?" If it's a constant source of anxiety you can easily modify for some students and as you are checking in just review what they have and pass them a ticket, even if it isn't what you are requiring of the entire class.
Can I have my IA or Co-Teacher hand these out?
YES!! I co-taught for 4 years and this was a life-saver. This assured that we weren't constantly checking in with the same kids and forgetting others! Just split the stack and start roaming the room.
What kinds of things would you assign for an exit ticket?
I think the biggest thing is it is something you would be having them do anyways. This is a layer of accountability for them to finish and for you to check in with each student. Let's brainstorm a list...
The first few problems of a worksheet or assignment
One step in a project
A section of the writing process
A quick writing prompt
Peer review or editing
A sort activity - I can check their answers
In my class we used INBs (see my Interactive Notebook series) and mostly the exit tickets were whatever we were doing for notes or interactions. It also gave me an opportunity to use my stamps to grade their work.
I can't recommend these enough, please let me know if you use these in your classroom or if you have any questions.
HERE IS A PRINTABLE FREEBIE - Thank you for your support.
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