By Karin Hess
It’s rare to find a teacher who’s never used exit tickets at the end of a lesson. I’m going to suggest some ways we can reframe what most of us call exit tickets and apply them more effectively during the lesson.
Exit tickets (also called exit cards, tickets out, etc.) are typically used by individual students at the end of a lesson for two formative purposes:
(1) To allow students to recall or self-assess what they’ve learned in that lesson; or
(2) To let the teacher know what learning during a lesson has “stuck” with most students.
Teachers then collect the exit tickets, review responses before the next class, and perhaps choose something students are still unclear about to review the next day.
Let’s use the What, When, Who, Why and How format to consider what we call these activities and how we can use them to deepen and extend learning.
WHAT to Rename Exit Tickets?
“Exit” implies using them only at the end of a lesson. Let’s start calling them something else, such as STOP and THINK or BEFORE YOU EXIT cards.
WHEN to Use Them?
Waiting until the end of the lesson means that many students will potentially have forgotten things that were covered during the early parts of the lesson. This is because the human brain can only hold three to five pieces of information in its working memory at any given time. As the lesson goes on, and new information is presented, students’ brains have to decide what to drop to make room for the new information and what to hang on to.
To maximize the use of STOP and THINK activities, don’t wait till the end of the lesson! My research suggests that teachers at every grade level should stop every 10 to 15 minutes during the lesson to allow students to process information before going on. This helps student brains to consolidate the information and build mental schemas.
WHO Should Use Them?
STOP and THINK activities are most valuable when they are used flexibly – by individuals, pairs of students, or in small groups. When students have a few minutes to talk with peers, thinking is deeper, and more connections can be expanded upon by each student.
WHY and HOW to Use Them?
STOP and THINK activities can take less than 5 minutes, have different purposes, and take many different forms – written, oral, visual, or interactive. Teachers at any grade level or subject area can use them formatively as a preassessment warm-up activity – such as in the video, “My Favorite No” where students collaboratively engage in error analysis.
STOP and THINK “before” slips (try repurposing these examples) can be used progressively throughout a lesson to deepen understanding. For example, we can use them for pre-lesson goal setting and later to share reflections on their learning; to make and check earlier predictions; to add layers of meaning to new vocabulary terms, or to stop and think several times while reading.
STOP and THINK can also be structured as a peer-to-peer interview, where partners ask each other what was most important or most memorable in a lesson, and what personal connections they can make. Interactive activities, such as peer interviews, also reinforce listening-speaking language skills.
Finally, Use a STOP and THINK Choice Board
Choice boards can be used at any time during a lesson to solidify the learning before going forward. Sometimes students might select an option; at other times, the teacher might randomly choose or assign the option.
The nine ideas in my STOP and THINK Choice Board (student version) all work best when students work in pairs or small groups to process the information together. As you read each description below, think about how these can be used throughout one of your lessons, such as when students build a visual timeline or create examples and non-examples.
Download this interactive teacher PDF
Our Goal Is Deeper Student Understanding
In the end, the work of a teacher is to create opportunities for students to build a deeper and a more meaningful understanding of the skills and concepts taught through collaboration, critical thinking, and self-reflection before, during, and after each lesson. STOP and THINK activities can do this more effectively than traditional exit cards.
Dr. Karin Hess is author of the Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrices and numerous articles and books, including Rigor by Design, Not Chance (2023) and Applying Depth of Knowledge and Cognitive Rigor (2025), reviewed here at MiddleWeb. Karin is a former middle school teacher and school administrator, recognized internationally as a leader in applying cognitive rigor, depth of knowledge (DOK), and learning progressions to the development of state and school-based curriculum and assessment systems. She can be contacted through her website www.karin-hess.com. Read all of Karin’s MiddleWeb articles here.
