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What is an Admit Slip?
This is an individual learning strategy which is used to help students access prior knowledge and introduce a new topic by completing a
type of ‘ticket’ which admits them to class.
Why use it?
- To establish a purpose for reading
- To access and activate prior knowledge and readiness
- To introduce a new topic of study or discussion
- To provide an effective and efficient way of formatively assessing students
How do I use it?
- Choose an article or video you want students to read or view.
- Create prompts or questions for the Admit Slip based on a given article or video, or use one of the Ready-to-Use Admit Slips created for CurioCity content.
- Provide each student with copy of the prepared Admit Slip at the beginning of the class. The Admit Slips could also be given to students the day before as a homework assignment to bring back to class completed.
- Students are provided 5 minutes to respond to the prompts.
- Students hand in completed Admit Slips to provide formative information prior to starting a specific lesson or topic of study.
Tips for success
- Questions and prompts should focus on the information you want the students to anticipate learning.
- Create statements, prompts or open-ended scenarios that the students can react to without having read the text.
- Write questions/statements which can be supported or refuted by information that can be found in the text.
- You may wish to provide opportunities for students to identify questions which they have about the topic.
Variations
- Once completed Admit Slips can be used in different ways:
- Students pair up and share their responses with their partner and then discuss their responses.
- Completed Admit Slips are collected, shuffled and then passed out to the students randomly. Students read the responses on the
card and then provide their input/feedback on the response. This could be repeated several times and then the responses are read out loud to
the class to discuss.
- Students can be provided with a photograph or image from the text or a small section of a large text and be asked to predict what
they are going to be reading about.
Extensions
- Students may hold onto their own Admit Slips (or index cards) throughout the lesson and then use them as Exit Slips at the end of the
lesson. Following the lesson, students read over their initial responses and then are given the opportunity to change their initial
responses, by adding to them or leaving them unchanged. These are then submitted to the teacher as they exit the class for the day.
Sources
Allen, Janet. (2004). Tools for Teaching Content Literacy. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2003). Think Literacy Cross-Curricular Approaches, Grades 7-12. Toronto, ON: Ontario
Ministry of Education.
Create-Your-Own Admit Slips
Starting Points Using Admit Slips
Ready-to-Use Admit Slips
- Admit Slip: A Fractious Energy Debate [.doc] [.pdf]
- Admit Slip: Diving Deep [.doc] [.pdf]
- Admit Slip: The Impact of Urban Sprawl [.doc] [.pdf]
- Admit Slip: The Impact of Jenny Simpson [.doc] [.pdf]
- Admit Slip: Music vs Pain [.doc] [.pdf]
- Admit Slip: Reading Between the Lines – The Truth Behind Food Labels [.doc] [.pdf]
- Admit Slip: Stem Cells: What’s Myth, What’s Truth [.doc] [.pdf]
- Admit Slip: Celiac Disease: When you really need to stay gluten-free [.doc] [.pdf]
- Admit Slip: Misconceptions about climate change by Veritasium [.doc] [.pdf]
- Admit Slip: Science of Skipping Stones [.doc] [.pdf]