Existential Exit Cards

February 24, 2011

Exit Cards are just the best! I have been using them most everyday. They have become an expectation from Mrs. Bartch. With Pottery 1, I am their first teacher, but with Pottery 2, those students have had my mentor teacher prior so they are experiencing this to be a different teaching method. This formative assessment is also a tool for encouraging my student's daily literacy and writing skills. Between their sketchbooks and Exit cards I know that I am able to address these elements on a daily basis. Art is a natural marriage with literacy since it too is a form of expression focusing on the exchange of ideas, of imagery, and word.

I alternate the structure of the Exit card according to my purpose. Some days the questions or prompts are directly related to the lesson plan and used to check the daily understanding of the student and on other days I am checking in with the student on a more personal level. At the end of last week, my third week, I asked each of my three classes to anonymously share two things they liked about the class and two things they would like to change about the class. I read each and every Exit Card and I wrote each comment down dividing the comments between likes and dislikes. There was also another category for wishes, such as going on field trips to the art museum or allowing cell phones and texting. Wishes! I then read these lists of comments back to the students. They were listening. They were laughing. It was a super opportunity to admit to and laugh at my areas of challenge as well as for them to witness my personal commitment to them and their learning. Listening to and honoring their feedback, I opened up the idea of presenting them a choice in their future seating arrangement, that of sitting with their friends. They cheered!

March 10, 2011

Exit cards going good and strong. I did not do them the past two classes with all of the other writing they have been doing for summative assessments. The poor dears! They do know the cards are part of our routine.

I was talking to two other teachers who are starting to use the Exit Cards after I shared some of my experiences with them. One said he was giving them to his students during class to work on at their own pace which they were to hand in at the end. Another woman said she likes to spring them on her students at the very end of class. That has been my design in the past. In both situations, the student gains their right to exit the class. I do wonder how or if the timing and the time allotted for answering really changes the answers.....thoughts?

Depending on my intention for the Exit Card, if I plan it and it is appropriate for my lesson plan, I give the Exit Card enough in advance of the end of class to be able to read back the student's responses. I like this because it engages the both of us immediately on the same feedback. I like how immediate it is. It also allows the time for me to get immediate feedback versus putting them off. I find that Exit Cards also reinforce classroom management at the close of class.