Get more out of Exit Slips: What the research tells us

Many of us use exit slips for formative assessment. According to Robert Marzano, there are four main categories of prompts that will help you get the most out of exit slips.

These prompts accomplish the following:

• Check for understanding
• Encourage reflection
• Check the use of instructional strategies
• Request student feedback on teacher practices

We have assembled a set of FREE exit slips based on the first three prompts. While you may want to target additional feedback in your class, preparing your exit slips ahead of time can be a time-saver that will elicit solid feedback.

We have found that adding space for students to record their learning targets also encourages them to reflect on the focus of the lesson.

Source: "The Many Uses of Exit Slips" by Robert Marzano in Educational Leadership, October 2012 (Vol. 70, #2, p. 80-81).

Download our FREE exit slips here!

Gear up for Summer!

The end of the school year is so close, we can almost smell the summer barbecues! As the school year winds down (and students' focus goes out the window), it's the perfect time to try one or all of the summer activities in our End-of-Year Summer Send-off kit. Students will have fun while getting in some last-minute writing practice as they create memorable keepsakes for themselves and their classmates.

This set is full of fun end-of-the-year teaching activities, and everything features our original artwork and is included in both color and black-and-white. In the Summer Send-off postcard booklet, students write positive notes to each other and bind them in a commemorative book. In “Advice from the Pros,” students create a project for next year’s class using one of nine different topic/product choices, templates, and decorative paper final draft paper. We've also created six colorful bookmarks with literary summer quotes (these look great printed in black-and-white on colorful paper) and three treat bag topper templates that you can attach to sandwich bags and fill with goodies. As always, our products are CCSS-aligned. This product is best suited for grades 5-8 and takes one to three class periods to complete.

See more at our store!

Fun with Shakespeare Research (Seriously!)

Did you know that Shakespeare is considered to have invented more than 500 words, including amazement, flowery, and countless?*

Did you know Shakespeare's shortest play is The Comedy of Errors, with 1,787 lines? And that his longest play is Hamlet, with 4,042 lines?*

Did you know that in Shakespeare's time, all the female roles in his plays were played by men or boys?*

You probably already knew this, but researching Shakespeare can be fun! In our newest activity, students enjoy researching the time period and background of Shakespeare as they assume various roles and tasks outlined by the RAFT cards. RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, Task) is a differentiated writing strategy that helps students understand their role as writers for specific audiences (not just for their teachers!).

This CCSS-aligned product includes a poster, 10 RAFT cards with assigned roles (plus 2 blank cards), directions, handouts, checklists, and answer guides!

BONUS! We also now offer a special bundle! Now you can get all of our introductory Shakespeare products at a $3.00 discount—that includes our Shakespeare's Birthday Party Activities, Research RAFT Cards, Sonnets Lesson Plan, and Iambic Pentameter Poster!

*Source for Shakespeare facts: The Folger Shakespeare Library

We LOVE to READ the SONnets BY the BARD!

The HAPpy GOATS are GRAZing IN the GRASS.

They LIKE to EAT the FLOwers AND the HAY.

And AFter THAT they'll READ a SHAKEspeare PLAY!


We could speak in iambic pentameter all day, but we'll let these charming goats do the talking (bleating?) for us. This poster serves as an excellent visual aid to help students understand the rhythm of iambic pentameter. It's available as a high-resolution 20" x 30" digital download, and there is also a mini version (8.5" x 11") that comes free with our Sonnet Lesson Plan. If you happen to have access to an enormous printer, then hey, that's great! Otherwise, you can do what we did and send the file to Walgreens (or Kinkos, or any other online printing service).

As it turns out, behinds are a BIG HIT with the middle school crowd. The poster we put up created such a buzz that another class took a "field trip" down the hall just to marvel at the goat butt. We think Shakespeare would be proud. 

FYI, this poster is also available as a hard copy print in several sizes from Zazzle!

Celebrate Shakespeare's Birthday (on any day)!

William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, and he died on the same day in 1616. We think that if Shakespeare were here to celebrate his 449th birthday, he would absolutely love the party we cooked up in his honor.

Our Shakespeare's Birthday Party set features a colorful poster and 32 task cards featuring fun trivia and lines from Shakespeare's plays. It also includes a "modernize Shakespeare" activity, where students update a line drawing of Shakespeare by cutting, gluing, drawing, and otherwise transforming to bring his image into the 21st century. (Middle school students have a ton of fun equipping Shakespeare with Kindles, iPods, and Kanye glasses.) The party is a great way to kick off a Shakespeare unit or to introduce him to apprehensive students!

The set also includes 12 printable cupcake wrapper templates (both in color and in black-and-white). The wraps feature our own original artwork of a coy little Shakespearean cat and dog donning their Elizabethan best, and quotes from Shakespeare plays. Some of the quotes we included are these:

"If music be the food of love, play on." (Twelfth Night)
"Prepare for mirth, for mirth becomes a feast." (Pericles, Prince of Tyre)
"Honey, and milk, and sugar; there is three." (Love's Labours Lost)

Look at how adorable the cupcakes turned out! The wraps in the picture below were printed in black-and-white on colored paper.

And these were printed in color. If you happen to own a fancy pair of scissors (like the ones that can cut in zigzags or waves), they would probably add an excellent touch.

Yum! Educational and delicious! Olive the cat was quite fond of them too.



You can download four of the cupcake templates for free here!