Smart Ways to Enter and Exit a Classroom
November 22, 2009 by GradingGirl
Filed under Mini-Lessons, Reading Fun, Writing Practice
On this relaxing Sunday afternoon, I’m writing strategy suggestions for my school’s Applied Technology department. As their literacy coach, I meet with the department every week to discuss, share, and observe their incorporation of reading and writing in the classroom. A shout out to these six motivated teachers!!! I thought many of my followers would be interested in some of the material I am sharing with them:
Entrance and Exit Slips
One can never have too many pens!!
The Applied Techies are looking for a productive way to ‘wrap-up’ class and/or lab time as well as a smart way to re-group and refresh before beginning the next class:
Entrance slips (index cards, sticky notes, small slips of paper, whatever your fancy) are completed before class and students bring them in to enter the door. Exit slips are the students’ passes out of the classroom. This writing-to-learn strategy can be used for many purposes in all content areas:
- Focusing student attention on the lesson to be taught the next day
- Setting the tone for the class lesson
- Accessing background knowledge
- Troubleshooting
- Reflecting
Entrance and exit slips are a way to ease students into writing … and, in the course of writing a sentence or two, reveal what they think about a topic, materials, or teaching strategies.
EXAMPLE Entrance Slip
Woods – Fall 2009
Name ____________________ Date __________
Please write an answer to this question in 2 – 3 complete sentences:
How can a worker set up a safe workshop that will meet OSHA standards? (provide at least three examples)
Some Other Suggestions:
~ How did you respond to last night’s reading?
~ How did yesterday’s measuring problems go?
~ What is a ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI)?
~ What worries you about today’s class?
~ Name the three most important things you learned?
~ What are you still confused about?
~ How does what we do in class relate to other things you do or experience?
~ What would you like to ask about today/tomorrow?
*Have students complete exit slips and entrance slips on topics such as : what I learned in class; how it relates to what I know; what is still unclear
*Students reflect on assessments: I prepared by ___; I could have ___; I would change____ if I did it again; doing this made me understand ______
*Have students reflect on the lesson; This lesson I_______; next time I will__________
Teacher challenge: Reflect on your day or week or particular lesson. What do you want to change? How did you function best as a teacher? How do you learn best – and how have you expressed that to your students? Share what YOU write with your students as well!
As GG states . . . write it down, write it down, there’s something magical about writing it down!
