How to Use Exit Tickets in the Classroom

Working with students can be hard sometimes. You don’t know what they are thinking, ESPECIALLY during a lesson. When I worked with 5th grade, we were departmentalized and I had Math and Science. Time didn’t allow me to check everyone’s homework or classwork during a lesson. Henceforth, I started using exit tickets.

Exit tickets can be a great asset to any classroom. It can be used in any grade from Kindergarten to 12th grade. In my blog post “5 Ways to use a PowerPoint Game“, I briefly mentioned using PowerPoint games as exit tickets. This is a great way to check for student understand, especially right after a lesson. Now, I’ll dive a little deeper into using exit tickets.

Exit tickets are easy to use. You can find exit tickets all over Pinterest and on teacherspayteachers. There are some with questions already printed on them and ones that are blank which allow you to create your own. Here are the ways you can use them both types:

1.) Use blank exit tickets. Find the blank exit template that you like most. (There’s a free template at the bottom of this post). You can print them out and have a stack ready to pass out to students at the end of a lesson. You would give a question to the students at the end of a lesson. Students would then return it you.

I used them with my 5th grade students. When they walked into my room, they had to pick up a computation sheet and an exit ticket if there were any in the basket. I would pose a single question at the end of the lesson about what we learned. They would turn it in at the end of class.

2.) Use exit tickets with questions. You can also create questions on editable exit tickets, thus saving more time. I’ve tried this method as well. It’s a great because I don’t have read or write the question for the students. I usually pass them out if I think the students need more practice. I usually reserved this one for tougher concepts.

2.) Use exit tickets with questions. You can also create questions on editable exit tickets, thus saving more time. I’ve tried this method as well. It’s a great because I don’t have read or write the question for the students. I usually pass them out if I think the students need more practice. I usually reserved this one for tougher concepts.

After students have left, I analyze each one for the answer. Since there’s only one question, I can easily see who understands the materials and who needs more help with a concept. Great for differentiating the students in future lessons. Grab your free copy of Exit Tickets below by clicking on the image.

Here are some more quick tips for using exit tickets:

– More than one class? Use certain colored tickets for certain class
– More than half the class miss the problem? Start the next class lesson with the same question
– Use the “Problem of the Day” as your exit ticket. Hit two birds with one stone!
– Use exit tickets for when they literally EXIT the classroom (ex. when they go to lunch, recess, Music, PE, etc)

I hope these exit tickets will help your students like it helped mine. Until next week!