Exit Tickets Teaching Strategy | Facing History & Ourselves

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Teaching Strategy

Exit Tickets

Use exit tickets to assess students’ understanding, monitor their questions, or gather feedback on your teaching.

Subject

  • Advisory
  • English & Language Arts
  • History
  • Social Studies

Grade

6–12

Language

English — US

Published

Updated

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What Is an Exit Ticket?

Exit tickets (also called "exit cards") require students to respond to questions or prompts on a piece of paper that they will pass in to you before they leave class. These tickets provide you with immediate information that you can use to assess students’ understanding, monitor their questions, or gather feedback on your teaching. For students, exit tickets serve as a content review at the end of a daily lesson and enhance their metacognitive skills.

Materials

How to Use Exit Tickets

Step 1: Prepare Exit Ticket Questions

Students should have a pencil and paper. Teachers can prepare half-slips of paper with typed questions or write questions on the board for students to answer. 

Since exit tickets must be turned in before students leave class, it is best if the prompts are specific and brief. They typically refer directly to the content that was studied, but they can also be general in nature. 

Exit Ticket Ideas

  • List three things you learned in class today.
  • What questions, ideas, and feelings did this lesson raise for you?
  • What was your favorite moment of class? Why? What was your least favorite part of class? Why?
  • Evaluate your participation in class today. What did you do well? What would you like to do differently next time?
  • What do you need?
    • What is something I can do as your teacher to support you in this class? 
    • What is something other students can do to support you in this class? 
  • Don’t misunderstand me:
    • One misunderstanding someone might have about me is . . .
    • But really, the truth about me is . . .

Exit tickets can be structured using the 3-2-1 format and S-I-T: Surprising, Interesting, Troubling teaching strategies as well.

Step 2: Students Respond to Prompt 

Often, teachers have students complete exit tickets during the final five minutes of the class period. Depending on the purpose for having students complete exit tickets, teachers may have students complete them anonymously.

Step 3: Reinforce Accountability

Students may leave class when they turn in an exit ticket to the teacher.

Variations on Exit Tickets

It is often appropriate to share your findings from the exit tickets with students at the beginning of the next lesson. For example, you could mention that many students asked similar questions, so you will make sure to address these questions in subsequent lessons. Sometimes teachers type up the results of the exit tickets (without names) and have students respond to these comments as a warm-up during the next lesson. Letting students know that you have read their ideas and have used them to inform your teaching decisions helps build a classroom culture of respect and trust.

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Teaching Strategy

Exit Tickets

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