Ever since we started creating exit tickets, I’ve been looking for other ways to repurpose, recycle and reuse them (because honestly, teachers don’t have time to be producing educational masterpieces every day!) We’ve put a LOT of brain power and endless hours into creating this resource, so I wanted to get mileage out of it! (I’m sure you can relate.)
So, without much further ado, here are eight creative ways you can use exit tickets in your Maths lessons:
1. As a Differentiated Warm-up
Mix up your daily maths warm-up by giving your students an exit ticket each. You can even differentiate them according to your student needs and provide extra practice in areas which they need to consolidate. Using exit tickets as a warm-up doesn’t take long, is excellent for additional data collection, and will get your students’ brains working and ready for your Maths lesson ahead!
This is an example of a ‘Choose your own adventure’ warm-up I have used with my class. It is a quick lesson starter that gave me a snapshot of insight on how students were travelling with a particular number skill. You can quickly let students take control of an activity like this or direct them according to what skills you feel they need to practice. This is just another example of how to mix things up. (The cute envelopes are old CD covers. I haven’t needed them in a while so it was time to repurpose them as well!)
2. To Assist your Report Writing
Ever get to report time and wondered “Has …. really mastered that particular skill?” Exit tickets are a super duper quick way for checking understanding of individual students without the bells and whistles of a formal assessment. There have been so many times I have just wanted to check one small thing… hello, exit tickets!
If you walk into my classroom around report writing time, you are bound to see exit tickets in action. They are also a fabulous way for last minute checks for understanding or to use as additional evidence as to why you gave a student a particular grade.
3. Students to Self-monitor and Reflect
I love that exit tickets allow my students to self-monitor and reflect on their learning journey. I really like the idea of students taking responsibility for their own learning, and this gives them a scaffold to do that. Give your students the opportunity to choose what they want additional practice in (it will provide you with some useful data on how some students are more reflective than others too.)
4. Pretesting
Use exit tickets as a way to inform your future teaching. Again, they are super quick, don’t involve pages of endless photocopying or marking and will give you a clear snapshot of where your students need help or what direction to take next.
5. Post-test
Perfect for summative or formative assessment. This is initially how exit tickets were intended to be used. Just because we are talking about using them creatively, doesn’t mean we need to forget about how effective they are to gauge whether students have understood the new skill you taught.
6. To Help you Organise Needs Based Groupings
I’ll admit that when I first started teaching, I thought that once I created my reading and maths ability based groups, I was done for the year. Boy was I wrong! I quickly learned that these groupings had to be fluid and furthermore, groups in maths needed to change (sometimes dramatically) depending on the topic and skills we were learning at the time. Exit tickets have allowed me to quickly assess students so I can group them according to their needs, based on a particular topic or skill (it also really helped me identify students who can slip under the radar from time to time). Using exit tickets in this way can also help create successful peer mentoring partnerships.
7. Plenary Activity
The reflection at the end of a math lesson is often overlooked, forgotten about or let’s get real – we run out of time. Using an exit ticket as a lesson plenary is easy to organise and administer. Reflection is such an essential component of the learning process. One of our customers says she asks her students to glue their reflective exit tickets next to the day’s work and it is easy for her to see and check as she marks the books!
8. To Complement Hands-on Maths Centres or Stations
Without a doubt, I love maths stations that involve hands-on elements where students are working with concrete materials. But if you are working closely with another guided group, it is hard to monitor if the students are completing and understanding the given task. By including a matching exit ticket with a hands-on activity, students can record their learning, and it keeps them accountable for the task they are completing. Also, it doesn’t require a lot of organisation or marking from you, giving you more time to dedicate yourself to the group you are working with during Math stations.
The more I create these Maths Exit Tickets, the more I realise how versatile a resource they really are! Our number sense tickets include four exit tickets per page that contain different questions. That is four different chances to practise that skill! We have also added differentiated versions, so all students in your class are catered for (one size most definitely doesn’t fit all!)
Do you use exit tickets in your classroom? Have you come up with a creative way to repurpose them? We would love to hear about it!
What to Read Next:
Our #1 Guide to Stree-Free Report Writing
8 Creative Ways to Use Number of the Day
A Simple Math Warmup + a FREEBIE
