How Can I Use Exit Slips to Facilitate Learning?

Preparing for a class includes planning the end of the lesson. Closure is as vital as the content and style of presenting a lesson because students tend to retain information better during the last few minutes of class. Commonly used closure techniques include the teacher summarizing the lesson or quizzing the students on the material taught. These techniques are used to stress the key points of a particular lesson.

The use of exit slips is another strategy that may be incorporated to facilitate closure of the lesson. Exit slips are small pieces of paper or index cards on which students can write their responses to a question or their understanding of the presented materials.  It takes about 5 minutes to facilitate learning through filling out an exit slip.

Benefits of exit slips

Exit slips are beneficial for both students and teachers. They help the students reflect on the information they learned, process the concepts and express their thoughts on learning. Exit slips encourage students to summarize the lesson, identify key points, analyze critically and refine their knowledge and learning. Integrating exit slips as part of the lesson may assist students in developing better comprehension and in-depth processing of the lecture.

Exit slips also act as a feedback mechanism for teachers. They enable teachers to know if the students have understood the lesson. Exit slips can help students to identify the areas in which they require additional clarification so that the teacher can plan the next class lesson keeping in mind the students’ level of understanding.

Types of exit slips

Fisher & Frey (2004) reported that three categories of exit slips or prompts can be used:

• Prompts that document learning

The questions formulated in these exit slips are designed to help teachers know if the students have understood the class. For example, students can write down responses for questions like “List two points that were taught today.” or “What did you learn today?”

• Prompts that emphasize the process of learning

Here, the questions may encourage the students to critically analyze the topic presented to them. Students may answer questions like “What doubts do you have on this topic?” or “How will you apply the same concept elsewhere?”

• Prompts that evaluate the effectiveness of instruction

Questions like “Did you like the class today?” or “Rate the class today on a scale of 1-10?” enables teachers to get feedback about their methods of instruction and can  help teachers understand if their mode of instruction was effective.

Integrating exit slips in class

Implementing the use of exit slips in the classroom is quite easy. The teacher determines the question or the area in which they want information. The decided upon question can either be mentioned on index cards, or stated verbally, written on a list, or posted on a bulletin board .  At the end of the class, collect these exit slips and review them. This information may then be used to plan your next class.

Exit slips are a great way to facilitate learning as students are encouraged to synthesize and organize the material in their own words while it is still fresh in their minds.

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Discuss here: What are some questions you could include in exit slips to stimulate learning in your classroom?