ELA Exit Tickets for Reading and Writing Classes

In English class, an exit ticket can check reading, writing, vocabulary, or grammar in just a few minutes. The key is asking students to use the skill, not just name it.

Reading exit tickets

• Main idea: State the main idea of today’s reading and one detail that supports it.
• Character change: How did a character change today, and what caused it?
• Author’s purpose: Persuade, inform, or entertain? Give one clue from the text.
• Best evidence: Copy the one sentence you would use as evidence and tell what it proves.
• Prediction: What will happen next, and what in the text makes you think so?

Writing exit tickets

• Write a topic sentence for a paragraph about today’s reading.
• Rewrite this weak sentence to make it stronger.
• Write one sentence that uses today’s transition word correctly.
• Write a hook for an essay on today’s topic.

Vocabulary and grammar exit tickets

• Define today’s new word in your own words and use it in a sentence.
• Write a compound sentence about the lesson using a comma and a conjunction.
• Find and fix the two errors in this sentence.
• Change this sentence from passive to active voice.

Keep the reading load light

An exit ticket is not the time for a new passage. Use the text students already read today. If you need a short excerpt, keep it to one or two sentences you wrote yourself.

Sort by skill

For reading exit tickets, sort by whether the evidence actually supports the claim. Many students can find a quote but cannot explain it. That tells you to teach the “explain” step tomorrow, not the “find” step.

Build a writing habit

Short daily exit tickets add up. If students write three or four sentences at the end of every class, they practice writing in complete thoughts every day. Have them keep exit tickets in the back of their notebook. At the end of a unit, they can pick their best one and revise it into a full paragraph. That gives you a quick writing grade built from work they already did. It also shows students how much their writing improved over a few weeks.

Project it, do not print it

Put the question on the board and have students answer in their journal. You save paper and they keep a record of their thinking. Our free exit ticket tool has ELA prompts ready to project with a timer.

For grammar warm-ups the next morning, try our grammar bell ringers. Working with students still learning English? See exit tickets for English learners.