#106: Steal these 10 exit tasks for better engagement, behaviour, and calm end to the lesson.

Exit tasks
Exit slips
Plenaries
Whatever you want to call them...
...they are SO much more than just a tool to consolidate learning or tick off reflection and self-assessment boxes.

When used effectively, they:
👉 Reinforce engagement and behaviour expectations.
👉 Encourage work completion by becoming part of your routine.
👉 Show students you care if they engage or finish their work!!

However, in reality...
Students can quickly become bored of them because the language is the same.
It can feel a little forced, especially as an exit routine if you’re trying to think of plenaries every day.
It adds extra work to our plates coming up with these exit tasks and then checking them!

That's where this episode comes in. I'm sharing 10 of my no-prep exit questions you can use immediately. These ideas are fun, flexible, and designed to help you feel calm and in control, while keeping your students engaged.

THE EXIT TASKS:

Here are my 10 exit tasks that you can copy and write up on the board at a moments notice. And of course if you like these, you can grab my teacher favourite 'Exit Doors' presentation with a bunch of other exit routine goodies inside of The Behaviour Club, or at the-unteachables.com/exit

1. Teach a Teenie - Imagine you had to explain what you learned in today’s lesson to somebody much younger than you. How might you explain it in the simplest way possible so that they would understand?

2. Hi-5 facts - Draw an outline of your hand. On the palm, write down what you think the main idea or main takeaway from the lesson has been. On each finger, write down one small fact that you learned

3. $3 Summary - Imagine each word that you write is worth 10c. Write a $3 summary of what you learned in today’s lesson. For example, this sentence is worth $1.30 because it is 13 words long! (Change the currency to whatever your local currency is)

4. Catch-up Notes - Imagine one of your friends was absent from class today. Write a list of 5 main things they would need to know from today’s lesson to be all caught up.

5. Beat the Teacher - Based on what you learnt today, come up with a quiz question that you think can stump the teacher! Write it down and be ready to test it out.

6. One Word - If you had to sum up everything you learned in today’s lesson in just one word, what would it be? Then, explain why you chose t

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Oh, hi there, teachers, welcome to the
Unteachables podcast.
I'm your host, claire English,and I am just a fellow teacher,
a toddler mama and a big oldbehavior nerd on a mission to
demystify and simplify thatlittle thing called classroom
management.
The way we've all been taughtto manage behavior and classroom
manage has left us playingcrowd control, which is not

(00:22):
something I subscribe to,because we're not dancers, we're
teachers.
So listen in as I walk youthrough the game, changing
strategies and I mean the thingsthat we can actually do and
action in our classrooms thatwill allow you to lean into your
beautiful values as acompassionate educator and feel
empowered to run your room witha little more calm and, dare I

(00:43):
say it, a lot less chaos.
I will see you in the episode.
Hello, hello, welcome back tothe Unteachables podcast.
It is an absolute joy to haveyou join me here again, or maybe
it's the first time you'rejoining me and if that's the
case, welcome.
My name is Claire, I'm yourhost and it is brilliant to have
you here.

(01:04):
My name is Claire, I'm yourhost and it is brilliant to have
you here.
If you don't know what I'm allabout, I just like to come onto
this podcast and talk to youabout the things that will
actually make a difference withyour classroom management and
behavior, the things that people, for some reason, don't tend to
talk about, like the wayteachers are taught about
classroom management.
It's all about the behavior andit's all about, like, how to

(01:24):
crowd, control your room andwhat to do when this happens.
When, my gosh, classroommanagement can be so much more
empowering and proactive andcalm and, you know, really in
alignment with the values that Iknow that you have if you're
listening to this podcast.
Anyway, on last week's episode,I gave you a rundown of three

(01:44):
of my non-negotiable exitroutines, like three things that
I do every single lesson thatare absolutely essential for me
to make sure that I'm ending alesson really calmly and
controlling the space in the waythat I can control it.
One of those things one ofthose non-negotiables was the
use of plenaries.
My gosh, I had such anoverwhelming response to that

(02:06):
episode and so many of you havealready sent me photos of the
plenary doors in action andgiven feedback about how they're
working for you in your class,and it is exciting.
Nothing makes me happier thanhearing back from you about
something that you're doing inyour practice that is actually
making a huge impact on thebehavior in the room and how you
feel about teaching, and youknow, like I've heard people use

(02:29):
the word like it's filled mewith hope in the last week and
it just brings me so much joy tohear that and I'm just so
grateful for anybody who'sreached out and let me know how
those resources have gone forthem.
So this week I decided to go abit deeper into plenaries, and
this episode is specifically forthose of you who don't have my
plenaries doors resource butjust want to try out plenaries,

(02:49):
plenaries that are actuallyengaging for students.
And, let's be honest, right,just I wanted to give you some
that you could chuck up on theboard, didn't have to think
about and could just give it ago like you know, take them up,
write them on your board and useimmediately.
So this episode, I'm going tobe handing over 10 of my
plenaries that you can copypaste from my show notes and

(03:09):
then pop up on the board and usethose in any lesson that you
teach.
First, I don't know if youheard last week's episode about
the qualms that I have withplenaries, but I want to go a
bit deeper into the qualmsbecause, even though they are
brilliant for learning andclassroom management, the
opposite can certainly be true,and I have seen the opposite
happen in most classrooms.

(03:30):
I've seen plenaries being donein.
To be honest with you, becauseif they're not done right it can
feel a little bit forced,especially as an exit routine.
If you're trying to think ofplenaries every day and trying
to think of them on the fly, itcan become really monotonous.
It can become really boring anddull.
The second thing it adds extrawork to our plates by coming up
with plenaries and then we'rechecking them.
That's a lot of work everysingle day and students can

(03:53):
quickly become bored ofplenaries because the language
is just the same.
Like what did you learn?
What could you do better?
What would you you know?
Like the even better if andwhat happened?
Like whatever plenaries you'reusing, students can very quickly
become bored of them because ofthe language that we use.
However, I am a huge advocatefor plenaries.
When they are used right, theyare the most brilliant proactive

(04:16):
classroom management toolbecause, as I said in the last
episode, it is just the perfectexample of how teaching and
learning and classroommanagement are so interlinked
and so intertwined and they'reone in the same, and it's not
just about the behavior itself.
It is just such a wonderful wayfor us to proactively classroom
manage because when we useplenaries right, they reinforce

(04:38):
their expectations aroundengagement, they encourage work
completion.
They send nonverbal messagesthat we care about what students
are doing and we're going tocheck that work and we're going
to expect the best work fromthem.
So the best way to try toovercome any plenary fatigue
that you have, or avoid plenaryfatigue altogether, is to, first
up, have a bank ready to go soyou can just grab them at a

(04:59):
pinch.
You don't have to be thinkingon your feet, you don't have to
be like the mental load ofhaving to come up with either a
starter activity or a plenaryactivity.
It's just immense like just themental load of doing that every
single lesson.
You know six lessons a day.
So have a bank ready to go soyou can grab them at a pinch,
you don't have to think about it.
Try to embed a bit of novelty inthe way that you deliver the

(05:20):
plenary to students.
Change things up with theformat.
By the way, I don't mean at anypoint in that that you get
students to do convoluted taskslike make models or do
performances or make up songs.
I'm not suggesting that at allbecause I think that goes
against the way that a plenaryshould be in the lesson, which
is like quick, sharp, to thepoint, really meaningful.

(05:42):
I think that we just do thatsometimes to try to get a bit
clever with it, but it ends upbeing a 30 minute task in itself
and that's not what you wantfrom a plenary.
And have a system where you cantake the temperature at a
glance.
So the days where you don'twant students to sit down and do
like a five minute pen to paperactivity, they can just like
pop their books in like a trayand they can, you know, show you

(06:03):
at a glance of where they're atwith their kind of thinking and
learning, and just include moreinteresting ways to deliver the
questions.
Even if you're kind of askingthe same thing over and over
again, deliver the questions ina way that makes students think
about things differently oryou're delivering it in a
different way, so it's likesomething fresh, it's something
new.
Today I'm going to help you withthe last part a few interesting

(06:26):
ways to deliver the plenaryquestions, so students are going
to be more inclined to actuallyengage with them meaningfully.
Actually, it helps with most ofthem.
The first one as well.
I'll give you like a bank of 10that you can draw from that you
can just like grab and pop upon your board.
So here are 10 plenaryquestions you can start using
immediately, no matter whatclassroom you teach in, no
matter where you are in theworld.

(06:47):
I said before like it is such auniversally helpful thing to
have a bank of plenaries readyto go.
I'm also going to pop these inthe show notes so you can easily
just copy and paste them intoyour notes to then copy up on
the board at the end of thelesson.
The best thing is, all of theones that I'm going to talk
about can just be done with apen and paper.
A plenary shouldn't take 20minutes of prep work.

(07:08):
I also want to say that all ofthese I've just used in my
practice over the years andprobably picked up from
different places.
So if you hear one you're like,actually like I've seen this
person using this plenary andthat's on this website.
Please feel free to let me know, and I can credit the sources
of these plenaries, but they'rejust plenaries that I've used in
my practice for many years andI've just grabbed them from

(07:31):
different places over the timethat I've been teaching.
So the first is teach a teeny.
So imagine you had to explainwhat you learned in today's
lesson to somebody much youngerthan you.
How might you explain it in thesimplest way possible so that
they would understand?
I love this one because ithelps students to then
synthesize everything they'velearned and just put it down in

(07:52):
really simple terms.
And that skill of synthesis isactually really quite a higher
order thinking skill.
The next is high five facts.
So draw an outline of your handon the palm, write down what
you think the main idea or maintakeaway from the lesson has
been, and then, on each of thefingers, write down one small
fact that you have learned totake away as well.

(08:13):
$3 summary, the next one.
So imagine each word that youwrite is worth 10 cents.
Write a $3 summary of what youlearned in today's lesson.
So, for example, this sentenceis worth $1.30 because it is 13
words long.
Of course, change the currencyto your local currency so your
students aren't like what thehell is this?
We use Euro.
So the next one is catch upnotes.

(08:34):
So imagine one of your friendswas absent from today's class,
write a list of five main thingsthey would need to know from
today's lesson to be all caughtup with the lesson today.
The next one is beat theteacher.
Based on what you've learnedtoday, come up with a quiz
question that you think you canstump me with, write it down and
be ready to test it out.

(08:55):
So you can even like, as theyexit the room, as you as they
walk out the door, they can giveyou their question and then you
can try to answer it.
So you can start to do littlefun things like that, and that
way you don't have to sit thereand mark books.
It's another way of you justkind of gauging what they've
learned from the lesson.
The next thing is one word.
If you had to sum up everythingthat you've learned in today's
lesson in just one word, whatwould it be?

(09:17):
Explain why you chose that word.
Again, it helps you to see ifthey've gotten the main idea
from the lesson, but you're notdoing so in a way that's saying
what did you learn this lesson?
Number seven is rock paperscissors.
So they write down their rock,which is the toughest thing they
found from the lesson theirpaper, the three most important
things they want to make a noteof.
And then their scissors,something least important that

(09:39):
they'd cut out.
Number eight is the shout out.
So what is one big thing youlearned this lesson?
Write it on a post-it note,hashtag your name and pop it up
on the board as you're leaving.
Number nine is you know it,poet.
Write an acrostic poem aboutwhat you learned this lesson,
using the words know it down thepage or one of your choosy.
You can use whatever words youwant for that.

(10:01):
Again, I just like this becauseit gets students to think
outside of the box.
It's not about, oh, like, let'swrite a poem.
If you say, write a poem aboutthe lesson that you just had, I
feel like that's a little bitharder for students because that
requires them to have certainskills.
You'd have to teach them aroundwriting poems and what's poetry
and you know all the rest of it.
But if you get them to justfollow, know it as an acrostic

(10:23):
poem, it just challenges them tothink about things differently,
which I really really like.
And the final one is I lovethis one and my students really
love it and I can present it indifferent ways, which is also
really fun, but the obstaclecourse.
So write down the muddiestpoint during the lesson, which
is the most confusing or hard tounderstand thing, the highest
wall you had to climb, so thething that took the most effort

(10:45):
to do.
And then the home straight, thething that you found the
easiest or the most fun.
So those are my 10 plenariesthat you can like copy and paste
from my show notes.
Pop up on your board tomorrow.
Any lesson you want to do aplenary and just give them a go.
So that's it, just a reallyshort, sharp episode so you can
have some plenaries to use andpop up on the board this week.

(11:06):
But if you're sold on plenariesand you're like, let me just go
all in on plenaries, I want allof your plenary resources.
If you want to have a bankready to go so you can grab them
at a pinch.
If you want to embed a bit ofnovelty in the way you deliver
the plenary, if you want tochange up the format.
If you want to have a systemwhere you can take the
temperature at a glance soyou're not adding more to your
plate having to look at all ofthe plenaries that you're making

(11:27):
them create, because that canadd a lot of extra work.
You can grab all of my exitroutine resources, including my
epic plenary doors resource thatI cannot nerd out on enough at
the-unteachablescom forwardslash exit.
Or, of course, you can justjump into the behavior club,
where you can download everysingle resource I've ever
created, with all of theaccompanying training, and you

(11:49):
get me as your mentor.
So, uh, that would be fantastic, because I would love to spend
2025 with you, making you feelsuper confident about what
you're doing in the classroomand support you through all of
the inevitable highs and lowsthat come with that.
But for now, thank you so muchfor spending your time with me
today and nerding out onplenaries, and I shall see you

(12:10):
back here next time.
Bye for now, wonderful teacher.