Understanding Checks and Tickets Out the Door

Many teachers struggle with closure. It’s always a challenge to stop the lesson in time at the end of the period to sum up the day’s learning and reflect on whether or not we have achieved our desired outcomes. One powerful strategy for gathering data about student learning at the end of a learning episode is the exit ticket. An exit ticket gives me formative data about where you--the student learner-- are in their learning and should inform choices I make as a teacher about subsequent lesson plans. 

Here are some great Exit Ticket templates that I may use: http://wgbyeducation.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/exitslips.pdf

And here is a Pinterest board that I've used to inspire my daily checks: http://www.pinterest.com/jills1105/exit-tickets/



These exit ticket do not have to be fancy and photocopied. They might be a slip of paper, conversation with sharing, index card. What matters most is: will the questions you are asking provide you with the data you need to drive your instructional decision making?

I've been asked to complete tickets that are too open ended or general. I try not to make that mistake and I try to draft my questions to get at the most important learning: What will students know, understand, and be able to do? Here is a list of Exit Ticket prompts I’ve begun to accumulate that are grouped by levels of Bloom’s taxonomy and more:

http://letthedatabeyourguide.wikispaces.com/Exit+Slip+Prompts

So, now I have the Exit Ticket data… what do I do with it? Some examples of ways a I might respond to Exit Ticket data might be:

• all students met the objective & move on with the curriculum what the data says
• how I might respond to it most students have not met the objective
• plan a follow up activity using a different modality some students met the objective, some partially met it, some are still struggling with it
• sort the exit tickets to create flexible groups http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/Flexible+Grouping with tiered activities http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/Tiering. 

Exit tickets are just one way to collect small snapshots of learning that we've done together and can provide me valuable direction on my lesson planning and their choices for instructional strategies.