Assessing students doesn’t have to take all day.

It also doesn’t have to be boring.

Some of the most valuable information I have learned from my students comes when I ask them an interesting open-ended question and give them just a few minutes to write down what they’ve learned on an exit ticket at the end of a lesson.

If you’re looking for some fun and engaging ideas to add to your assessment toolkit, I have a few exit ticket ideas I think you’ll like.

 

10 engaging exit ticket ideas:

10 Words or Less

This is one of my favorite ideas for an exit ticket template. And as an added bonus, it doesn’t require any prep work for teachers. Have students write a summary of the lesson in 10 words or less. Students love the challenge of only being able to use 10 words and it really forces them to consider each word they are using. You can read through the exit tickets quickly and you’ll be able to see which students grasped key vocabulary, takeaways or processes from the lesson.

Draw. Label.Caption

For the exit ticket, you’ll have students draw a picture based on what they learned in the lesson. Then, you’ll have them label all the important elements of their picture and finally provide a 2-3 sentence caption. This is a great exit ticket idea especially for science or social studies, and it gives you the opportunity to see what details really stuck with your students.

#lessonslearned

This is a student favorite. Have students come up with 3 hashtags they would use if they were going to tag that lesson on social media. This is great for students who like to express themselves creatively and it really helps you see if students got the main idea/point of the lesson. As an added bonus you could have students draw an image they would post on Instagram that connects to their hashtag.

Sentence.Phrase.Word

Have students write a detailed sentence that summarizes the lesson. Have them underline the most important phrase and then have them circle the one word that is more important in that phrase. This allows you to see if students can summarize what they learned and identify the key takeaway from the lesson.

Wise Words

Have students write 1-2 pieces of advice they would give to someone who is just learning this skill or topic for the first time. I love using this one during math because it allows me to see if students have found a strategy that works well for them. This is one of my favorites to have students share out loud. Many times their wise words are something another student needs to hear.  

3-2-1

I love using 3-2-1 as an exit ticket one because it gives me so much information but doesn’t take much time. At the end of a lesson I will have students write down 3 things they learned. This could be vocabulary terms, strategies, or just new pieces of information. Then they write down 2 questions or wanderings they still have. This helps me identify what I still need to teach on that topic. And then the last thing they write down is 1 thing they still need to practice. This helps me figure out who I might need to follow up with in small group. 

Multiple Choice

I will ask students to write a multiple choice question and provide four answer choices that could be used as an assessment for the lesson/unit. Then I will actually pick 4-5 questions to create a formal quiz/assessment to give students. I will give students a bonus point if I pick their question to be included in the quiz. This is one of my favorites. When students have to come up with a question and answer choices it helps me see if they are able to think about how this skill/concept would appear on an end of unit assessment.

Extra! Extra! 

Ask students to use what they learned in the lesson to come up with a headline that would appear in the school newspaper. This is another one that appeals to students who are really creative. You could have students vote on the top 2-3 headlines and then as an extension activity to the lesson they could write an article that would connect to one of the top headlines.

In My Teacher’s Shoes…

Ask students to respond to the prompt: “If I were teaching this lesson, I would make sure to…” This is a great prompt to use as an exit ticket because it gives me insight into each students learning styles. I’m always surprised at what my students share. Sometime it has to do with how something was taught or the amount of time that was spent on a particular part of the lesson. This one lets me see what the students think is necessary to teach the lesson and gives me ideas on how I can improve my instruction.

Brain Dump

I will set the timer for 1-2 minutes and tell students to write down everything they can remember from the lesson. This is great because I can see what words or phrases students write down, but also the volume of writing students are able to produce in 1-2 minutes tells me a lot about who really understands the new content and who doesn’t feel like they have much to write about what they learned during that lesson.   

I hope you’re excited to try some of these exit ticket ideas in your classroom this week. Which one do you think you’ll try first? Whether you’re having a class discussion at the end of the lesson or having students quickly jot down their responses on a note card or sticky note, I hope you enjoy adding some new assessment tools into your lessons this week.

If you’re interested in getting ready-to-print templates along with 20 more exit ticket ideas, check out my Exit Ticket Sticky Note Templates in my TPT store. I love having these templates printed and sitting on my teacher table so I can quickly grab and use them at the end of any lesson. And, as you can see from the pictures in this blog post, you don’t have to use them only on sticky notes. Printing on regular paper works just as well and kids love using the pre-printed templates.

Happy Assessing!

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