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Bell Ringers and Exit Tickets

These strategies engage participants actively at the beginning and end of a lesson and facilitate communicating prior knowledge, lesson expectations, and holes in understanding between student and teacher.

Bell Ringers and Exit Tickets

Summary

Bell Ringers are one or two questions posed at the beginning of a lesson that have a short oral or written response. This exercise is intended to focus students on the topic immediately after the "bell rings" to begin class. Exit Tickets serve a similar purpose at the end of the class, usually consisting of one question that asks students to make use of the information in the lesson to create a written response. Exit Tickets are a quick, informal way to assess what students were able to learn from the lesson.

Procedure

At the beginning of a lesson, students answer a higher order thinking question that reviews previous information, assesses prior knowledge, predicts or previews new information, or engenders discussion. This is a Bell Ringer.
At the end of a lesson, students answer a higher order thinking question that asks them to analyze, summarize, apply, or synthesize what was learned or that has them predict what happens next. This is an Exit Ticket.

Wong, H., & Wong, R. (1994). The first days of school: How to be an effective teacher. Sunnyvale, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications.