What Did You Learn Today in My Class?

A long time ago - when I was doing my M.Ed. program - I started giving students "Exit Tickets" on Fridays.  I asked things like, "What specific thing did you learn this week in Science?" and "What question do you still have?"  These little tickets were informative, but I didn't really do much with the information I got from them.  I still think exit tickets are a good formative assessment and now I have found a new way to do them with my Science X students!

I use Socrative.com which actually offers a stock exit ticket as one of its choices.  The site also allows teachers to create short quizzes (multiple choice and/or open ended) as well as survey students and display real-time responses.  It collates the results and teachers can download them as an excel spreadsheet or have them emailed.

My Science X students have been using the Keynote app on their iPads to create a presentation on a topic of their choice related to the brain.  The topics include a variety of interest areas, many of which come from a personal connection that the students have with them.  They include: depression and the brain, the effects of gaming, allergies, concussions and other brain-related sports injuries, epilepsy and many more.  On Friday I did a short Socrative exit survey at the end of class (shared with me by a colleague).  One of the questions asked students to rate their level of comfort using the Keynote app which is a lot like Power Point.  I was very surprised to find that one boy rated himself "not at all comfortable" with this app so I was able to give him a little more personal time during class today, but not in an intrusive or obvious way.  I might not have known this if it weren't for the Socrative Exit Ticket.  I hope to use these throughout this school year to find out how the learning process is going for my students and to make changes in my instruction when I need to.