Exit Slips

A useful way to end a class is to use exit slips/cards. An exit card or slip is one that students complete and turn in before leaving class or when finishing a lesson. At the end of the lesson or five minutes before the end of class, the teacher gives the students a prompt and ask them to write their answers on a 3x5 card. An alternative is to state the prompt orally, to put the question on the board or to project it on a screen and ask students to use a half-sheet of paper to answer the question you pose. Students have 3-5 minutes to respond. As students leave the class, they put their exit slips in a designated place. Students can give the cards directly to the teacher as a nice personal touch at the end of class. The teacher reviews the exit slips to determine how the instruction has to be altered to better meet the needs of all the students.

Exit slips require students to think critically and help students reflect on what they have learned and express what or how they are thinking about the new information.

Some examples of prompts that can be used for exit slips:

- Write one thing you learned today.

- Did you enjoy working in small groups today?

- List the most important thing discussed today.

- What confuses you about the material we worked with today?

- Write a quick summary about . . .

- Rate your understanding of today’s topic on a scale from 1-10. What can you do to improve your understanding?

- Select a quote from your reading that you feel is worthy of some discussion and briefly tell why.

- I would like to learn more about . . .

- The most important thing I learned today . .

- The thing that surprised me today . . .

- I’d like to do more of . . .

- The best part of class today . . .

- I had an idea I didn’t get a chance to share. Here it is!

- I need help with . . .

- Describe one topic that we covered today that you would like to learn more about.

- One thing I didn’t understand:

- Write a quick summary about . . .

Exit slips are great because they take just a few minutes and provide teacher with an informal measure of how well the students have understood a topic or a lesson or make note of what still needs to be learned.

The teacher can collect the exit slips as a part of an assessment portfolio for each student.

This also works as an entry card to tie in learning from a previous lesson or reading.