Exit-Slips/Ticket-Out-The-Door TEACHING STRATEGY

At the end of each lesson, do you often ask yourself if your students understood the lesson?  What ways and how often do you check for understanding? One of the most popular strategies for many teachers is Exit Slips or Tickets-Out-The-Door. This strategy is used to help students process the information and reflect on what they learned. They also incorporate writing and make quick formative assessments. 

Exit slip questions may fall into these specific categories:

1. Prompts that demonstrate knowledge of a topic. 

    *Ex. Write three things you learned from today's lesson. 

    *Ex. Explain one idea that you found the most interesting. 

2. Prompts that make students critically think about the lesson.

    *Ex. One idea I need clarified is...

    *Ex. One question I have about the topic is...

Other questions you may ask:

*What made learning easy for you today?

*What made learning difficult for you today?

*What do you still need to know before we move on?

*What did you learn today?

*What should our next step be?

How to use this strategy:

1. At the end of the lesson or a few minutes before class ends, ask students to respond to a prompt you created beforehand. 

2. Distribute small pieces of scratch paper or sticky notes, or have students complete a digital version if your classroom is paperless. Be sure they include their name. 

3. To exit the class or to be excused, students must turn in their Exit Slip. I usually stand by the door and quickly review each slip. I then place the papers in two piles; "they got it" or "they need more clarification."  If I see that many students did not understand the topic or have more questions, I spend a few minutes the next day to reteach. If students use a digital version, I give students a point from 1-5. One means they did not understand the lesson, Five means they understood the major concepts, and reteaching is unnecessary. 

If you are looking for some fun formative assessments, click HERE. 

I hope you found this post useful. Click HERE to grab over 70 teaching strategies for FREE! 

Happy Teaching, 

Carousel Brainstorming Teaching Strategy

Carousel Brainstorming is a fun and engaging teaching strategy that will get your students moving

and talking. You can use this strategy in several ways; as an introduction, prediction, or reflection.

Students will be able to discuss in both small groups and as an entire class. 

Students begin by forming small groups and rotating with their group around the room, stopping at

each "station". They discuss the information required at the station and then post their ideas for the

next group to see. Below are the steps to implement this technique:

STEP 1: Identify a topic for which input is desired.

STEP 2: List one topic area or question per sheet of butcher paper. I often use groups of six and write a large number (1-6) on the paper as well.

STEP 3: Divide your students into groups and assign each group a number. 

STEP 4: Have those groups stand next to the poster that matched their assigned number.

STEP 5: Have students brainstorm ideas, writing them on sticky notes or the poster itself. I usually give my students 1-3 minutes. 

STEP 6: When the time is called have students rotate to the poster to their right. 

STEP 7: Students review the previous group's information while having a discussion. Then they add their ideas. This process continues until all groups have brainstormed at each poster. 

Ideas for the Social Studies Classroom:

In your U.S. History class, you could use it as a reflection at the end of a lesson to review Civil

Rights Leaders. Each station would be a specific person. Students would brainstorm their most

important contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. 

If you teach Civics/American government you could use it as an introduction to gain prior

knowledge about the Constitution. Topics could include:

Station 1. The Legislative Branch

Station 2. The Executive Branch

Station 3. The Judicial Branch

Station 4. The Bill of Rights

Station 5. The Amendments (11-27)

Station 6. The Creation of the Constitution

When teaching Psychology you could use this strategy to review for the final. Topics would include the units that were covered during the semester class. For example;

Station 1: What is Psychology?

Station 2: Consciousness

Station 3: Psychological Disorders

Station 4: Therapy

Station 5: Motivation and Emotion

Station 6: Personality 

In World History there are so many options. For example, when studying Imperialism each poster

could have a title with the different locations of imperialism and have students explain what they

learned about imperialism in each location. 

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Happy teaching!

Chalk Dust Diva

PHILOSOPHICAL CHAIRS Teaching Strategy

Philosophical Chairs is an engaging teaching strategy to get students to think about their beliefs on important topics and to be able to discuss and share their ideas. It allows students to critically think, verbally ponder, and logically write their beliefs on a variety of ethical issues and topics.

Below are the steps to implement Philosophical Chairs in the classroom:

STEP 1: Create signs to hang in the classroom: Totally Agree, Agree, Disagree, Totally Disagree. Hang one sign in each corner of the classroom.

STEP 2: First students need to learn about a specific topic. The teacher may wish to use direct instruction, show a film clip, or assign a reading, newspaper article, short story, etc.

STEP 3: The teacher will then present a statement or high-level question that may provoke thought and discussion. Some examples I use in my social studies classroom may include:

* U.S. History: President Truman was justified in dropping the atomic bomb on Japan.
* World History: After reading excerpts from Leviathan by Hobbes. "People cannot be trusted to govern"
* Civics: After reading "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau, "The government is best which governs least".

STEP 4: Give students a few minutes to think about their opinion related to the question. You may have students write their opinion on a piece of paper.

STEP 5: Tell students to move to the corner of the room that has the sign that matches their opinion: Totally Agree, Agree, Disagree, Totally Disagree. Tell students to they may be called upon to share their opinion with the class. You might want to have students discuss their opinions with the people they are standing next to so they can practice their response.  Tell students they can also change their opinion at any time and move to a different corner of the room. * To simplify this strategy simply remove the Totally Agree and Totally Disagree signs and have them move to either one side of the room or the other.

STEP 6: Ask volunteers to share their opinions. If no student volunteers, then call on students randomly to share their answers. You can use a simple rubric to assess their responses or give extra credit points.

STEP 7: At the end of this activity you may want to give your students a formative assessment. Some questions you may want to include:
1. What is your final opinion? Explain your reasoning in detail.
2. What were at least two opinions that are opposite of yours? What made you disagree with these opinions?
3. Are there still questions you may have about this topic?

STEP 8: Before beginning this activity you may want to review the following rules of engagement and post them on the board.

1. No talking while someone else is speaking.
2. Have an open mind and try to understand the person's point of view.
3. Explain your opinion and reasoning using academic language.
4. Respond to opinions only, not the personality of the person.

I would love to hear how you conduct this strategy in your classroom. Comment below!

Happy Teaching!

THUMBS UP, DOWN, SIDEWAYS Teaching Strategy

Sometimes after teaching a lesson in my history class, I look at the students to get some type of reinforcement that they understand the content. I head nod, a comment, anything would be nice. But what often happens is that I get met with a sea of blank faces.  And that's why I often incorporate frequent checks for understanding. Thumbs Up, Down, Sideways is an easy and quick strategy to use to see which students are understanding the content and which students may need more help. 

I try to incorporate CFU's every 10 minutes throughout a lesson. When I use this strategy I simply ask students how well they understand the content I'm teaching. They place their thumb close to their body facing up (I understand the content), thumbs to the side (I understand the content but I need more clarification) or, thumbs down (I don't understand most of the content). This CFU is especially helpful for students who have high anxiety in sharing their lack of understanding since no other student can see their response. 

What types of checks-for-understanding do you use in your classroom?

Happy Teaching!

Chalk Dust Diva

WHIP AROUND Teaching Strategy

In my classroom, I am constantly looking for new and quick ways to assess my students. Sometimes I  check for understanding by calling on random students using index cards. Other times I might ask a few students to write their answer on the whiteboard. There are so many engaging options to assess your students.  "Whip-Around" is one of my favorite teaching strategies.  Here is how it works:

STEP 1: Have each student write down two or three possible responses to a prompt or question.
STEP 2: Then have students, in order, share out one of their responses using a public speaking voice.
STEP 3: Ask all students to stand up prior to speaking, then as they share they sit down. You may want to have student pair-share prior to having them share with the entire class.

This activity is best meant to be a quick moving activity that only takes a few minutes. If your class is large use only one or two rows, not the entire class.

This strategy works best when summarizing or to be able to hear from multiple voices in the room. It is also a good end-of-period activity.

Make sure the question being asked has many answers and they or not long and/or complex.

How do you assess your students? I would love to hear about your ideas! Leave a comment below.

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Happy Teaching!

WAGON WHEEL Teaching Strategy

Are you looking for an engaging strategy to practice discussion in the classroom? "Wagon Wheel" is a fun and interactive strategy that will get your students moving!

This strategy provides students an opportunity to engage in a formal discussion and experience roles both as participant and as an active listener. Students also have the responsibility of supporting their opinions and response using specific textual evidence.

How it works...
Students are asked to engage in a group discussion about  a specific topic - there will be two circles;
Inner circle students will model appropriate discussion techniques... while the outer circle students will listen, respond and evaluate. Have the outer students rotate every few minutes.

For larger classes, you might want to break up the class into two separate wagon wheels.

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Happy Teaching!

Document Based Questions in the History Classroom

More important in my secondary history class than actually teaching history is teaching my students how to critically think. To have may students "think like historians" is the #1 goal. One of the strategies I consistently use are Document Based Questions,  otherwise known as "DBQ's".

Document Based Questions are either an essay (sometimes even a paragraph), or a series of short-answer questions. Students support their claims by providing evidence from a group of documents - either primary or secondary sources. In my classroom I try to incorporate DBQ's as much a possible. I created this helpful handout for my students that takes them step-by-step through the process of writing a DBQ essay. Get it FREE by clicking HERE!

Here are just a few examples of DBQ's I use in my classroom:

Click HERE!

Click HERE!

Click HERE!

 

Do you use DBQ's in your classroom?

Happy Teaching!