Exit Tickets

We've been doing a lot with FIP (Formative Instructional Practices) in our district.  One of the ideas presented many times during our last PD day was exit tickets.  My students have been self-evaluating all year on different skills/tasks, but I've never actually tried an exit ticket with them.  Back in my third grade days, its been 8 years, I would have used exit tickets in a second, but I didn't really think to try them in kindergarten.

I knew that if I had something visual, I would be more likely to use them.  I purchased some fun library pockets, numbered them, and passed them off to my student teacher to create a display.

Today we tried them with author's purpose.  Students got a small sheet of paper (made with a 2x4 shipping label template then cut on the paper cutter) marked with an E (to entertain), I (to inform) and a P (persuade).  My student teacher read a story and after discussion features of the text, students had to complete the exit ticket by circling the author's purpose for the story before going to their centers.  After completing the exit ticket, each student put it in his/her library pocket.  I put a little line on the exit ticket for them to write the number in case they put it in the wrong pocket.  This is the first time they have been assigned a number, but if you already use the numbering system in your room, this could easily be left off.

While students do not yet have the author's purpose concept down, they seem to really want the purpose to be "to persuade", they did an awesome job with the exit tickets.  I loved the opportunity for them to show what they know in an informal way.

Do you use exit tickets in your room?  How do they work for you?