Wrapping up a short instructional period can feel tricky. Historically, it has not been one of my strengths and with 20 minutes to teach, 10 minutes to circulate books, and 5 minutes (at best) for transition; it is the first thing to go. Despite my years of classroom experience of wrapping up lesson quite strongly, I struggled as I transitioned into the media center.

My goal this year is to no longer struggle and to end learning with a bang! There are a lot of ways to wrap up a lesson, and one way that I will be building in is exit tickets.

While talking and planning Closing Circles, a group of dedicated elementary teachers and I worked to keep the wording reflective, positive, and collaborative.

Ending the day with reflection and wording such as this keeps it positive and creates a climate of trust, respect, and risk taking. Who wouldn’t want to come back the next day for that? If I were still a classroom teacher, I would be using sentence starters and prompts like these during my Closing Circles.

I have found a use for them in the Media Center! They are now my exit tickets. One of the things that I LOVE about these as exit tickets is that they can be used for any purpose with any content! A few key things about using Exit Tickets:

• Scaffold the process. For younger kids, this will mean first teaching them how to verbalize their responses. Once they become comfortable verbally responding, they can start transferring this skill in writing.
• Provide a digital option. It is important to build media literacy and help students develop writing and speaking skills online. I did make a Google Form for my students to use when we wrap up lessons.
• Mix it up. It can be tempting to use the same closing activity week after week (or day after day). Especially when we only see kids once a week. But it is equally important to use a handful of closing activities that the students can independently participate in (after some initial teaching).
• Combine closing activities. It is a lot of fun for students when they can move and talk to a lot of different people. I like using Swap Meets, Concentric Circles, and Maitre D’s, and Take Sides with these exit tickets prompts.

One of the things that I love about these exit tickets is it makes it easy for me to differentiate for my students. I have a ‘problem’ when I create things for them; I can’t seem to create just one thing. I created one ticket and then started to think, well what could that look like with my older kids. I created some that have lines, boxes, and a digital form. This not only makes it great to use different tickets with different grade levels, but I can also provide different tickets within classes to give my students any necessary support.

In a few weeks, I will share more about those structures that I shared above. Until then, I’d love to hear about how you wrap up or close out your lessons.