Exit passes are used as a type of formative assessment which are easily differentiated to
cater to the diverse needs of students within a primary classroom. At the conclusion of a
lesson or prior to exiting the class, 5 students are chosen using paddle pop sticks to answer
differentiated questions in order for the teacher to assess student understanding. This form
of assessment is easily modified to suit any key learning area including numeracy and
literacy. Students are asked a question and if they give the correct response, they are able to
park their car in the exit pass parking. If the student gives an incorrect response, the
teacher modifies the question to allow them to have success. This is associated with
Vygotskys theory known as the Zone of Proximal Development (Readman & Allen, 2013).
The teacher keeps an anecdotal record of the students responses which allows them to
assess the students formally using a rubric. Students are able to receive immediate feedback
about whether they answered the question correctly and can also receive feedback about
how they could improve their response in order to progress higher on the rubric.
Anecdotal Evidence
Student
Name
e.g. Thomas
Date
Question
Response
Outcome
23/10/2015
What is the
next number
after 29?
30
MAe-4NA
Whilst using the Exit pass assessment, teachers must anecdotally record the evidence that
they have assessed student learning and what outcome the student has achieved. This is
done by having an anecdotal evidence chart near where the students give their responses
which allows the teacher to record the student responses. The teacher is then able to use
this information to plan for future differentiated assessment and to drive lesson planning.
This evidence can also be used to assess students against the rubric.
Assessment Rubric
Term 1 Weeks 1-5 Early Stage 1
ENe-4A
Demonstrates developing skills and strategies to read, view and
Outcome
comprehend short, predictable texts on familiar topics in different
media and technologies
Students can read and understand some sight words
Literacy- Reading
Sight words
Focus Area:
Learning Intention (goal):
Below
At
Above
Numeracy- Number
(oral count)
Focus Area:
Learning Intention (goal):
MAe-4NA
counts to 30, and orders, reads and represents numbers in the
range 0 to 20
Outcome:
Below
At
Above
In order to document and compare student results, a rubric is used to report on student outcomes. These rubrics are specific to Numeracy and
Literacy and are a simple tool for teachers to document and analyse where their students are currently at and what they need to do to
progress forward. It is also a great tool for teachers to use Consistent Teacher Judgement (CTJ) to compare their student results to other
student results across the grade. These rubrics also allow the teacher to provide feedback to students and their parents. Teachers use the
evidence they have collected anecdotally to record results against the rubric.
Personal Reflection
Throughout my practicum, I have learnt many different assessment strategies to assist me as a
future educator. By using this assessment strategy within the classroom, I learnt that
assessment does not always have to be formal as the students may not respond well due to
pressure being put on the outcome. I believe that this type of formative assessment used
engages the students and allows them to be assessed through a fun activity. I believe that this
assessment type is also used as a self-assessment for the students as they are able to see
which questions they get right and which questions they do not. This experience has allowed
me to document student learning using a rubric where I was able to gain confidence in
assessing based on a verbal formative assessment strategy.
As a prospective educator, the experience of using this particular assessment has allowed me
to have confidence in using different assessment types that do not put as much pressure on
the students. I believe that this process was engaging and allowed the students to see where
they stand by viewing the rubric. Students have the ability to progress in their learning and
have a goal to work towards. I believe that I will use this assessment strategy in my future
classroom as I feel that it worked well with the students and allowed me to see where they
were at within the class. Using this strategy also allowed me to differentiate learning tasks
based on their ability which was obtained during the informal verbal formative assessment.