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Presenter
Kim Guadagnoli, a theater teacher for Grand Terrace High School, teaching intro to theater all the way to advanced classes
Transcript
Hi, my name is Kim Guadagnoli and I’m a theater teacher for Grand Terrace High School. I teach intro to theater all the way to advanced classes. And I’m here to share with you today an “Exit Ticket” strategy that I like to use in my classroom.
Exit tickets are a strategy designed to help students reflect and review the lesson. I like to use many forms of exit tickets in my classroom. My favorite is the check-in. So for the check-in, I like to gauge where my students are with the material. I use Google forms as a check-in and I like to call my students the “Guad Squad”, so I like to name my check-ins things like “Guad Squad Check-In #1”, or what have you.
I like to give them questions that are about themselves, like what have you been doing to help your mental health? Have you been taking walks? Have you been watching your favorite shows? And then I also like to focus on questions that are more classroom related, asking them to maybe measure on a scale of one to five how well they’re understanding what we’re doing in class, if they have any questions.
I also like to give them the opportunity to tell me if they need anything from me as a teacher. I’ll ask them things like: I really want my teacher to know, as a sentence starter, so that they’re able to tell me something that might be going on in their life this week, that might be something that they’re dealing with so that I know if they’re struggling. This is a great way to check in with the students to see if they’re struggling personally, emotionally at home, outside of school, but also to see if they’re struggling with the work. And if they’re having a hard time understanding what we’re working on.
The exit ticket is usually composed of short prompts for the students to answer. So I like to use sentence starters. I also like to ask them if they have questions. So, is there something you’re struggling with or you still don’t understand? Those are great ways to see where your students are with the lesson.
I teach theater. So we use an exit ticket strategy that’s specific to rehearsal and performance. So I’ve taught my students an exit ticket strategy where we talk about what went well with your rehearsal and performance, and then what can be improved. I never want to say what went bad. I always want to say what can we do better next time? And I never want them just to say things like, it’s good, it was great, it’s fine — so I want them to use vocabulary that we use in the classroom.
So I do go through and model with them and I make sure that they know when we’re talking about what went well, what are we talking about? Your rehearsal process, your connection with your partner, maybe the memorization skills, your voice, your body. Those are things that we’ve talked about in class, so that I teach them that they need to use that vocabulary within their exit ticket. And the same goes for things that can be improved.
There’s a lot of ways that you can implement exit tickets in your classroom. I like to use Google form, you can also use Google slide, you can use Google docs, you could have them answer a question in your Google classroom, you can use paper and pen. I think a fun way is to also to use emojis. This is a really good modification for EL and SCC students because when you’re asking them how they’re feeling, you can use those so that you can gain a better understanding of where they’re struggling with the lesson and I think it’s fun for them.
Some examples of the exit ticket questions: list three ideas you came up with from today’s lesson? What are questions you have about today’s lesson? List three things that you learned from today? It could even be emotional. How are you feeling after today’s lesson?
So in recap, exit tickets are a great way to get your students to ask questions, to reflect on their learning and to, for you as a teacher, to gauge where they are in the learning. I think that there’s so many ways you could use exit tickets in your classroom. Like I said, my favorite is the check-in because it’s a little bit more personal and with theater, I can really tell if the students need extra help from me. But whatever you choose, just have fun with it. And I hope you enjoy using exit tickets in your classroom. Thank you.
Accompanying Materials & Resources
- Quick Guide: Exit Tickets (PDF – 1 Page)
- Screenshots of a Sample Exit Ticket (Powerpoint)
- Screenshots of a Sample Exit Ticket (PDF)
