They may seem like "busy work," but entrance/exit tickets are a relatively common technique used by teachers interested in getting a quick "snapshot" of where their students are in their thinking about topics covered in a class. I always find student comments to be helpful in better understanding:
- How you're thinking about topics related to the class and how your thinking evolves over the course of the semester,
- "Themes" that are recurring in your comments that might suggest a specific interest you might have,
- Of how to write quiz and exam questions that provide you with an opportunity to put information delivered in the video lectures, discussions in class, and observations during field trips together in different ways that will - hopefully - reinforce the knowledge that you're gaining over the course of the semester,
- Of how to put together a potentially fun (gasp), or at least different, in class teaching technique that I hope to unleash at some point in the not-too-distant future.
If you'd like to learn more about the use of class entrance/exit "tickets" (which I'm sure you do;-), there's a really good page on the topic on the Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning at Brown University.