Price: Free
Exit slips are a formative assessment tool which teachers can use to monitor student comprehension and attitudes. They include a small number of questions - usually no more than 5 - and are completed and turned in as a sort of "ticket to exit" at the end of class. Brookfield & Preskill (2005), for example, use Critical Incident Questionnaires (CIQ) at the end of the final class of each week. This slip includes 5 questions:
- At what moment in class this week were you most engaged as a learner?
- At what moment in class this week were you most distanced as a learner?
- What action that anyone in the room took this week did you find most affirming or helpful?
- What action that anyone in the room took this week did you find most puzzling or confusing?
- What surprised you most about the class this week?
They then base a certain number of activities in subsequent weeks on responses to the CIQs.
Other exit slips focus more on content and have a summative aspect. For example, teachers wishing to add another dimension to their assessment of discussion, could use an exit slip to pose a question related to the current topic and require students to cite the content of the discussion in their answers.
Traditionally, exit slips were pieces of paper, but nowadays there are numerous free, easy-to-use technologies which streamline this process:
Google Forms: With Google Forms, you can choose from a variety of question formats (multiple choice, short/long answer, etc.) to create assessments and share them with students via email or web link. Students' responses can be viewed in a variety of formats, including Excel.
Slido: This polling software allows you to create events (in this case, a class session) and to share polls (or assessments here) with participants. The free version works fine for creating exit slips.
