There I was, a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed student teacher, diving into my third practicum with all the enthusiasm only a new teacher eager to make a difference can have. My mission? Teaching fractions to a lively, Year 3 class. My first ever lesson.
That hour in the classroom remains a bit of a blur to this day. But amidst the chaos, one moment stands out like a neon sign in my memory.
At the end of the lesson, my mentor teacher pulled aside the brightest kid in the class, and asked him “What did you learn this morning?”
His response to this day fills my eager-beaver heart with lead.
“I have no idea.”
Talk about a gut punch.
Needless to say, I learned a very important lesson that day (even if my students did not). There is no point sticking to your plan if the information itself isn’t sticking with your students. This is why formative assessment is so gosh-darn important.
Let's face it – we're not mind readers. So how do we know what's really going on inside those little heads staring back at us?
Exit tickets are like your secret weapon for checking understanding. Whether you use them at the beginning, middle, or end of a lesson, they're a breeze to implement and can make all the difference in helping you steer your (teaching) ship in the right direction.
There are three main advantages of the humble Exit Ticket:
- You gain immediate insight into student understanding.
- They are super non-threatening for your students.
- They allow you to plan accordingly for the next phase of learning (you can bet your tooshie I had to reteach that Year 3 fractions lesson and boy did I nail it a second time!)
4 Exit Ticket Categories:
- Question
- Aligns with the lesson goal assessing what was taught during that lesson.
- Students should be able to complete in 5 minutes or less.
- Can be used to promote critical thinking.
- Reflection
- Students connect concepts taught in lesson.
- Students focus on their strengths and identify their weaknesses which provides them with the tools for directing their own learning.
- Self-Evaluation
- helps to determine whether students THINK they understood the lesson, providing insight into their own self-reflection.
- Identifies areas of difficulty and inform your own teaching.
- Retrieval
- Gets information out of students’ heads and onto paper.
- Retrieval can lead to more long-term learning, and can improve understanding of own learning process.
Okay, that’s all well and good. But.. the BIG question:
Absolutely not. The * beauty * of formative assessment is to give you – the teacher – insight. Nothing more.
So, what are you waiting for? Download your free Exit Tickets which includes 19 (!!) different versions for you and your students.
