These 12 exit slips can be used with any text as a method to engage readers with the text and allow the teacher to assess the progress being made by each student--even when they are all reading different texts.

Based on Strategies That Work by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis, I developed these exit slips to hold my students accountable for independent novel reading. I have since found that I can use them for any text--articles, short stories, even poetry.

The exit slips explain the strategies and provide a small space for students to record their responses to their reading that day. Strategies include: summarizing, connecting, questioning, inferring, determining importance, recognizing cause and effect, reflecting, visualizing, and predicting. The 3-2-1 slip can be used for a variety of purposes--(i.e., three things I learned, two things I found most interesting, one question I still have).

Each page contains two exit slips. I run them off, cut the pages in half, and then store the slips in a plastic basket I bought at the dollar store. The slips fit perfectly, and I use index cars as tab dividers. This basket sits on my front table for easy access--I can pull out the strategy slip I want to review with whatever shared reading I'm doing. Having such variety means the kids don't get tired of doing the same written responses each day when they do independent reading.

(See also my Novel Response Activity for Independent Reading on this site. I use these slips, that packet, and chapter-summaries to get a complete picture of a student's independent novel reading. It makes it a little harder for them to fake their reading!)