1. Exit Slips
Exit Slips help students reflect on what they have learned, allow students to express
what or how they are thinking about new information. This particular printout
includes prompts for assessment that fall into three categories:
 Prompts that document learning
 Prompts that emphasize the process of learning
 Prompts to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction.
1. Before your lesson, determine a key concept that you want students to think about
or for which you wish to gather information.
2. Explain to students that they are going to respond to a prompt posed to the class,
which is related to the day’s lesson or information learned.
3. At the end of your lesson or five minutes before the end of class, distribute the
appropriate Exit Slip printout and ask students to complete it. You may state the
prompts orally to your students or project it visually on an overhead or display
board. You may also distribute notecards or have students use notebook paper to
record their responses instead of using the printout.
4. If this is the first time that students have used an Exit Slip, you may wish to model
the process and expectations for the students.
5. Before students leave the classroom, collect their Exit Slips, and use them to help
assess and inform future instruction.
Why use exit slips?
 They provide teachers with an informal measure of how well students have understood a
topic or lesson.
 They help students reflect on what they have learned.
 They allow students to express what or how they are thinking about new information.
 They teach students to think critically.
How to use exit slips
1. At the end of your lesson ask students to respond to a question or prompt.
Note: There are three categories of exit slips (Fisher & Frey, 2004):
o Prompts that document learning:
—Example: Write one thing you learned today.
—Example: Discuss how today's lesson could be used in the real world.
o Prompts that emphasize the process of learning:
—Example: I didn't understand…
—Example: Write one question you have about today's lesson.

2. o Prompts to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction:
—Example: Did you enjoy working in small groups today?
o Other exit prompts include:
—I would like to learn more about…
—Please explain more about…
—The thing that surprised me the most today was…
—I wish…
2. You may state the prompt orally to your students or project it visually on an overhead or
blackboard.
3. You may want to distribute 3 x 5 cards for students to write down their responses.
4. Review the exit slips to determine how you may need to alter your instruction to better
meet the needs of all your students.
5. Collect the exit slips as a part of an assessment portfolio for each student.
EXIT SLIPS: Highly Effective Formative Assessment Tool for ALL Content Areas
Common core will enable teachers to deliver far more powerful, and therefore more
effective, lessons than in the past.
With this new approach to approaching learning (more emphasis on informational text with
practical applications to the real world), teachers will need to monitor student grasp of key
concepts every few minutes. This checking-for-understanding (cfu) must go beyond simply
asking a few questions on what a teacher just lectured about to those few students who
have their hands up to answer questions. To engage all students (and hold them
accountable for learning), teachers must have a variety of tools to use throughout a lesson
to make sure that students who don't understand the point of the lesson can be quickly
identified and supported. This is how a teacher can be sure that at least 80% of the
students are fully prepared to go on to more complex work, start individual assignments,
attempt the homework assignment, etc. For that 20% who are lost, the teacher can pull
them aside to offer a mini-lesson (typically such lessons only last for a few minutes where
problems are quickly sorted out and addressed in a format that is more easily understood).
Though there are many techniques to check for student understanding, one popular one is
EXIT SLIPS. It can take several forms from half-slips to index cards (and more). Whatever
tool is used, it should not be overwhelming in size (no 8 X11 sheet of paper for
example). An index card is less scary and more effective since students want to fill up the
card with everything that they can recall whereas an 8 X11 leads to writer's block.
Typically, this type of assessment takes only about 5 minutes of class time. Students can
turn them in as they leave the room (hence "exit slip".) Again, this is only one tool of many a
teacher should weave into classroom instruction.

3. The Exit-Slip strategy requires students to write responses to questions you pose at the end of
class. Exit Slips help students reflect on what they have learned and express what or how they
are thinking about the new information. Exit Slips easily incorporate writing into your content
area classroom and require students to think critically.
There are three categories of exit slips (Fisher & Frey, 2004):
 Prompts that document learning,
o Ex. Write one thing you learned today.
o Ex. Discuss how today's lesson could be used in the real world.
 Prompts that emphasize the process of learning,
o Ex. I didn't understand…
o Ex. Write one question you have about today's lesson.
 Prompts to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction
o Ex. Did you enjoy working in small groups today?
Other exit prompts include:
I would like to learn more about…
 Please explain more about…
 The most important thing I learned today is…
 The thing that surprised me the most today was…
 I wish…
Benefits
Exit Slips are great because they take just a few minutes and provide you with an informal
measure of how well your students have understood a topic or lesson.
Create and use the strategy
 At the end of your lesson or five minutes before the end of class, ask students to respond
to a prompt you pose to the class.
 You may state the prompt orally to your students or project it visually on an overhead ro
blackboard.
 You may want to distribute 3X5 cards for students to write their responses on or allow
students to write on loose-leaf paper.
 As students leave your room they should turn in their exit slips.
 Review the exit slips to determine how you may need to alter your instruction to better
meet the needs of all your students.
 Collect the exit slips as a part of an assessment portfolio for each student.