# Exit Ticket — Facilitator Guide

> Folder: `exit-ticket` · Category: feedback forms · any group · 3 min · offline + online · print props · tool pack
> License: CC BY 4.0

An exit ticket is the ninety seconds at the door that tells you what actually landed — not what the room clapped for. Three prompts on one small slip, filled in as people gather their coats, read in the time it takes them to leave. It is the smallest honest check-for-understanding there is.

## Objectives

By the end of the activity, participants will have:

1. Written, while the session is still warm, one thing that actually landed, one question still open, and one next move they can name.
2. Handed you their live confusions verbatim — the question stack becomes the opener of the next session.
3. Been through a check so small it stays honest: three lines, under ninety seconds, anonymous.

## When to use this activity

- A session ends and the next one builds on what landed here — you need the read before you plan, not a survey next week.
- You teach a series (class, cohort, team ritual) and want a pulse that costs three minutes a session.
- The room is standing up to leave and you have one minute of attention, no more — this is built for exactly that window.

## Why three prompts, not ten

An exit ticket only gets filled at the door if it takes under two minutes. Three lines — one thing learned, one question still open, one next action — give you more real signal than a page of ratings, because people write them while the session is still warm.

## Setup

**Space:** the exit path — slips go out as the session wraps and come back where people pass on the way out.

**Materials per person:** one blank poker card as the slip (`exit-ticket-prop-cards.pdf` blanks take three lines, same trim and safe margin as the printed faces) and a pen; the three prompt cards stand face-up so the questions never need re-explaining.

**Materials for the room:** a box, tray or chair at the door for collection; online, the same three prompts as one-line fields in a closing form.

**Grouping:** any size — one slip per person; in large rooms hand the deck out before the wrap-up so coats and slips get picked up together.

**Roles:** everyone writes three lines; you say "I read these before I leave", keep the pace moving at the door, and open the next session from the question stack.

## How to run it

| Time | Phase | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| 0–1 | Hand out | As the session wraps, give one slip per person. Say: three lines, I read them before I leave. |
| 1–2 | Fill | People write while packing up. Keep it moving — a slip handed in blank is a missed signal, not a rule break. |
| 2–3 | Collect | Collect at the door — a box, a chair, a photo of the pile. Read the questions; they are tomorrow's opening. |

## The card

Use the faces from `exit-ticket-prop-cards.pdf`: a master card, the three prompt cards — learned, open question, next move — a watch-out card, branded backs, and blanks that become the slips themselves. Keep the three prompt faces visible while people write; the blank card carries the same trim and safe zone as the printed ones.

## Failure modes

- **Collecting and not using.** If the slips vanish into a drawer, people stop writing anything real. Open the next session with the questions you gathered.
- **Making it a graded task.** An exit ticket is not homework. The moment it counts for a mark, it becomes performance.
- **Too many lines.** Add a fourth, fifth, sixth prompt and the completion rate collapses. Three is the ceiling at the door.

## Variations

- **Pair check:** each person says their next move to a neighbor before handing in — sixty seconds more, and the commitment gets real.
- **Online:** the three prompts as a closing form (the folder's FormLM block); keep every field one line.
- **Weekly digest:** in a multi-day program, one box for all slips and a Friday sort of the question column into next week's openers.
- **Midpoint ticket:** hand out once at the break too — the difference between the two piles is your live read on the second half.

## Facilitation notes

- Read the question stack before you plan the next session; it is the agenda, not material.
- Open by answering one question from the pile out loud — it teaches the room that the ticket is real.
- Keep it anonymous. A slip with a name on it stops being honest.

## Put it on the wall

Print `exit-ticket-activity-poster.pdf` (A3) to put the run of show, the three prompts and the watch-outs on one wall by the door while you facilitate.

## Props in this folder

- `exit-ticket-prop-cards.pdf` — poker-spec print sheet (63.5 × 88.9 mm, bleed and cut guides): master card, three prompt cards, a watch-out card, branded backs and blank slips
- `exit-ticket-run-sheet.pdf` — the print edition: this run sheet + the debrief, bound as one A4 document with bookmarks (`-Letter.pdf` is US Letter)
- `exit-ticket-activity-poster.pdf` — the whole ticket on one A3 wall sheet
- `exit-ticket-guide.md` · `-debrief.md` · `-start-here.md` — the facilitator guide, the reading guide, the one-page start here
- `exit-ticket-license.md` — what you may do
- `SKILL.md` · `exit-ticket.zip` — the machine-readable manifest, and the whole folder in one download

## Agent version

Every file in this folder has a stable public URL — an AI agent can fetch the prompt deck, the reading guide and this run sheet with three curl commands (see `SKILL.md`). The paper version needs a box by the door and a pen. Keep it anonymous; an exit ticket with a name on it stops being honest.