Using Exit Tickets Effectively

Lucy always came to my elementary math class a little bit hesitant, unsure, and always wary of giving the wrong answer. And then, one day it changed. This once-uncertain girl who often looked like she was about to erupt in tears every time she talked about math was all smiles. The reason? Exit tickets.

Implementing exit tickets in my math class made a world of difference to this one student and a great impact on others as well. Exit tickets became a staple in my class from then on—a simple, quick way for Lucy and her peers to show what they’d learned, find some success, and exit my classroom feeling satisfied with their effort.

Exit tickets help students take responsibility for the content they’ve learned and encourage students to reflect about important concepts from class. They also serve as a formative assessment, providing immediate feedback for both teachers and students, and even allow teachers to check in on students’ social and emotional well-being. Whether you’re a new teacher or just new to exit tickets, what I’ve learned over time might be useful to you.

Creating Simple Exit Tickets

The key to making exit tickets successful in my math class (and then later in other content areas as well) was in the wording of the prompts. 

The prompts were more successful when they 

• asked only one question,
• were simple and had an answer that could be thought of quickly, and
• assessed the most basic knowledge I wanted the students to walk away with.

This is not about seeing if students can answer a challenge question or apply their knowledge. Instead, it’s to focus on a key point of the lesson, assessing one of the most critical learning objectives of that class. This can really help your students feel positive about what they learned and motivated to move on to the next part of their learning.

Here are some examples of exit ticket prompts.

Math

• What is the sum of 246 and 589?
• What is the perimeter of a rectangle with sides of 5 cm and 7 cm?

Science

• What are the three states of matter?
• What is one example of an animal adaptation?

Social Studies

• What is the capital of your state? (spelled correctly!)
• What is one right guaranteed by the First Amendment?

Language Arts

• What is the setting of the story we discussed?
• Write a synonym for the word happy.

These types of prompts can give students a quick win, a feeling of accomplishment, and a way for them to show you that they have some understanding.

Another approach is to ask a more general question—for example, What is one thing you learned? or What’s one thing you could tell a younger student or peer about this lesson? Questions like these allow students to process and review the lesson in their minds and tell you what they think is the most important part of what they learned.

Best Practices and Quick Tips

Make it a routine. Exit tickets can become part of your regular classroom schedule. Having some small papers ready to write on (maybe different colors to add to the fun) and a box of small pencils can help ensure that you aren’t scrambling to get the exit ticket done. You may even want to have a spot where you can stand and mark the exit tickets easily with your favorite marker or pen. It can actually become something that students and you are looking forward to.

Don’t collect them—send them home. Exit tickets shouldn’t become a burden on the teacher. Instead of collecting the exit tickets to look at later, consider this: A student shows you their exit ticket, you glance at it, mark it (with a star, check mark, or cross-out) and hand it back to them.

If it’s good, they can take it with them.

If it needs adjusting, send them back to fix it and show you again before leaving the room.

Follow up as needed. There may be some exit tickets that catch your eye: some amazing, some alarming. Keep these for future follow-ups. Having a small pile of exit tickets that you can reference later is helpful for when you have a chance to meet with a student or even to use during a team meeting or parent conference.

Every so often, you may get an exit ticket that includes a snarky remark or puts up a red flag. It’s important in these situations to remain neutral, collect the ticket, and know that you’ll be able to follow up later.

On the flip side, I’ve received some exit tickets that are so well-done with amazing responses or artwork that I’ve hung them up for others to see.

There may be other times when you get a collection of tickets that show you that a big portion of the class just didn’t understand what you were teaching. This type of formative assessment is so helpful, as it will inform your instruction for the next day and is a great way to support your students.

How Exit Tickets Support Social and Emotional Learning

There are many ways you can use an exit ticket to check in with students’ social and emotional learning (SEL) as well. Here are some examples of prompts:

• What is one thing you did today that made you feel proud?
• How did you handle a challenge today? What could you do differently next time?
• What is one kind thing someone did for you today?
• How did you help someone else today, and how did that make you feel?
• What emotion did you feel most often today, and why?
• Did you feel supported by your classmates today? Explain why or why not.
• What is one thing you learned about yourself today?
• How did you manage yourself today?
• What is one goal you have for tomorrow to make it a better day?

For SEL-specific exit tickets, you may consider having two prompt choices for students, as they may not be able to think of something, and they could get stuck.  Another option is to have a rating scale or multiple-choice prompt:

How proud were you of your work today?

1. Super proud

2. Kind of proud

3. Not so proud

Or:

What did you feel most about your work today?

A.  Excitement

B.  Pride

C. Frustration

D. Apathy/Nothing

E. Other—you name it! 

Another trick is to use emojis. Ask students to draw an emoji of how they feel about the work they did during that lesson. 

Exit tickets (of any kind) can also help you to foster connections and understand your students better. Just like greeting your students at the beginning of class, having that daily touchpoint with each student at the end of class can be beneficial. You can gauge how they’re feeling as they end the lesson and have a moment to make eye contact and give them a positive boost as they transition to the next part of their day. 

This moment also gives you a chance to read your students’ facial expressions and follow up with a quick question like “How was it working with your partner?” or a comment like “I saw you struggle a little. Don’t worry. We’re going to review it tomorrow. I’ve got you!”

The responses you get give you clues that can help you when you need to follow up with students later.

For Lucy and many of her classmates, the exit ticket served as a review and reassurance that they were on track. Even more, it became a much-needed daily connection with me, their teacher, to help them know that they were being supported in their learning journey.