Exit Slips as Formative Assessments

Exit slips (or exit tickets) are one of the easiest ways to incorporate formative assessments into your regular classroom routine!

You just taught an amazing series of lessons! Then, as you review your students’ assessments, you realize they did not get it. Has this happened to you? It has certainly happened to me, and it’s extremely frustrating! We all know that formative assessments given at regular intervals are key to avoiding this, but I think we tend to overthink and over complicate formative assessments. When we overthink formative assessments, we tend to give them too infrequently. I don’t know about you, but I have definitely been guilty of this in the past! Exit slips are one of the easiest solutions!

The first reason you should be using exit slips is because they are customizable! Just like any formative assessment, exit slips, or exit tickets, can come in a variety of different shapes and sizes. Post-it notes, scrap paper, quick write journal entry, pre-planned printables. All of these can be used as exit slips! The main idea is that the student must complete the task in order to exit the room, or exit the lesson if you will.

Of course, an exit slip wouldn’t technically have to be given at the conclusion of the lesson; you could have them completed at the beginning of a lesson to assess retention of the learning target from the previous day’s lesson. That’s part of the beauty of the exit slip! You get to decide what it looks like for you and your students and your lessons! Just remember, exit slips should be given either the day the lesson was taught or the very next day.

Exit slips allow you to collect artifacts to document students’ learning!

The proof is in the pudding; or in this case, the proof is in the exit slip! Exit slips provide proof as to what your students have learned, or retained, in any given lesson. We use Standards Based Grading in our classrooms, so we are always looking for ways to collect artifacts to document our students’ learning. Not only do exit slips provide me, the teacher, with proof of whether or not my students have understood what I’ve taught, but they also provide my students, as learners, with proof as to how well they have understood the content.

In addition to having your students complete an exit slip, you can ask them to tell you how well they think they’ve understood the lesson using a 1-3 scale. When I do this, I ask my students to also give me a brief explanation as to why they’ve rated themselves the way the have. This encourages your students to really think through how well they think they’ve understood the content, and it gives you more insight as to where they’re at as well.  You could also simply have your students do fist to three on their hands.  Of course, if you have a different set of numbers for levels of understanding, you can use those! 

When you return the exit slips to your students with feedback, they can see how well their assessment of themselves aligned with their performance. For your students, this can sometimes give them a wake up call that they may not be as in tune with their understanding as they thought they were. Or, it could also confirm that they are headed in the right direction! For you, it gives you a clear idea of where each students’ understanding is.

Exit slips are quick!

I don’t know about you, but I like to make the absolute most of each minute in my lessons with my students. Time is a precious commodity in the classroom, or at least it is in mine! I have to imagine I’m not alone in this! Exit slips are so quick to give. For example, at the end of each of my Everyday Math lessons, I made an exit slip with a quick problem that aligns with the day’s lesson to show me whether or not the student understood the lesson. An exit ticket shouldn’t be a long, drawn out, time consuming activity. In ELA, I might ask students to answer a quick prompt on a post-it note. I’m not looking for novels, just quick proof that students are where I think they are in terms of progression in mastery of the learning target.

I also like to make sure I take a few moments after I’ve returned the exit slips to the students to go over it as a class. You can do this on your SmartBoard or a document camera. I really like students to see exactly what I see when reviewing exit slips- especially in math. I believe it is so important for students to see their mistakes and understand how to correct them. Students don’t always know what they don’t know, and it is our job to help them see this. Remember, exit tickets (and all other forms of formative assessments!) are not just for you as the teacher! Exit slips are equally as important to the student!

Exit slips are easy to assess!

You remember that really well-meaning assignment you gave your students as a formative assessment? The one you planned on using to see where they were at before the summative assessment? That’s right, the unnecessarily long one you put in your bulging teacher bag to take home and grade after dinner. And yes, it’s the same one you embarrassingly found three weeks after the summative assessment when you had to clean out that teacher bag. Yep. That’s the one. Maybe this hasn’t ever happened to you, but it did happen to me, and it definitely didn’t need to. Exit slips are the exact opposite of that assignment.

Exit slips are so incredibly easy and quick to grade! Yes, you read that correctly, quick and easy used to describe grading! That’s a teacher’s dream, right? Once the exit slips have been turned in, I typically try to grade them as soon as I can. Maybe while the kids are at specials, or after they’ve started on some independent work, or even right after they leave at the end of the day. You really only need a minute or two!

As I review the students’ work, I place them into one of three piles. Students who exhibited complete understanding of the concept (tier 1). Students who had small errors or partial understanding (tier 2). And the final group consisted of students who had little to no understanding of the skill (tier 3). After I have them separated, I can quickly and easily mark each exit slip in the stacks with a 3, 2, or 1 to indicate students’ mastery, emerging, or beginning skill level. Then I simply clip them together and leave them out ready to pass back at the beginning of the next day’s lesson for review.

Exit slips are powerful!

Finally, you need to be using exit slips because they are so powerful! You wouldn’t get in your car and drive if you weren’t seeing clearly; at least I really hope not. How you lay out your instruction in the classroom should be the same. You need to be able to clearly see what your students know and don’t know in order to effectively drive your instruction. Exit slips. That is the job of an exit slip- to drive your instruction.

After I’ve divided the students’ exit slips into three different piles, I know exactly where my students are. The tier one students are good to go; they could benefit from being allowed to help the tier two students. The tier three students are the ones that I would want to meet with either individually or in a small group setting.

After reviewing the exit slips each day, I have a clear understanding where my students are and how to proceed in the next day’s lesson. When you know exactly where each student is, you gain so much time back because you know when you’re good to move on or when it’s necessary to practice a concept a little more as a whole group before moving on further. It isn’t a guessing game anymore; you have clear evidence, and that is a powerful tool.

You need to be able to clearly see what your students know and don’t know in order to effectively drive your instruction. Exit slips. That is the job of an exit slip- to drive your instruction.

So, in a nutshell…

1. Exit slips are customizable.
   • You can design them anyway you want/need to in order to fit your lesson and your students.
2. Exit slips are proof.
   • They give you cold hard facts in regard to where your students are in their learning of any given skill or concept.
3. Exit slips are quick.
   • Exit slips should not take much time to distribute, complete, and collect.
   • Take just a couple minutes to review the exit slip with your kids the next day.
4. Exit slips are easy.
   • Exit slips are easy to grade. Break them into three categories.
     1. They get it.
     2. They kind of get it.
     3. They don’t understand at all.
5. Exit slips are powerful.
   • Exit slips will drive your instruction in a clear and efficient way.