Exit slips are a flexible, low-stakes, high-impact formative assessment tool that provide meaningful feedback loops between students and teachers—without over-reliance on tests.
Why Use Exit Slips
- Tests are useful, but, when used too frequently, can be exhausting for students and time-consuming for teachers.
- Exit slips offer immediate insight into student thinking in concise written or visual form.
- Used throughout unit, exit slips support reflection, feedback, and tracking growth.
- Exit slips can be used with any subject
What follows was first shared with me by Paul Healy, a Junior High teacher. Paul’s idea can be adapted for any grade level:
How Beyond the Apple Exit Slips Work
- Distributed as booklets at the start of a unit. Each page of the booklet has 4 options for responses
- Prompts are designed to reflect on daily or weekly readings, discussions, and course content
- Sometimes, an option is assigned; other times, students choose the option they feel is most meaningful
- Collected at the end of a lesson
- Oral or written teacher feedback provided before next lesson
- High expectations for depth of thought are clearly set from the start
Sample topics for exit slips:
| I’d like to learn more about… | This discussion shifted my thinking from…to… | This information connects with… |
| I talked with a partner and this is what we think. . . | Student choice of response: | This sketch shows what I learned . . . |
| I’m not sure about this . . . | This reminds me of a song (movie, sport, etc.) . . . | This is important because . . . |
| I’m still wondering about . . . | The picture this makes in my mind is . . . | These puzzle pieces show how this connects with what I learned before . . . |
Scoring Criteria: teacher comments may be written or oral
A-/A/A+ (Perceptive, Critical, Open)
- Teacher comments focus on the presence of deep connections, original insights, critical questioning, broad perspectives.
B/B+ (Thoughtful, Thorough, Engaged)
- Teacher comments focus on clear connections, sustained participation, solid understanding.
B- or Below (Resubmission Suggested)
- Teacher comments focus on surface-level understanding, minimal engagement with content or peers.
- Benchmark for success: B or higher.
Suggestion: Using Exit Slips Mid-Class
- Quick (1–2 minutes) check-in before a break.
- Instructor scans slips to gauge understanding and adjust instruction in real time.
- Encourages active student engagement.
Beyond the Apple: Reimagining teaching through professional conversations 