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3 Tools to Use to Check for Understanding

2/1/2020

Checking for understanding is the backbone of effective teaching. As learners are introduced to new material and concepts, many students make errors as they process the information or they don’t have adequate background knowledge to be able to form connections. And the larger the chunk of material that is presented, the more likely there is for learners to develop misconceptions.

Effective teachers stop to check for understanding by asking a lot of questions that require responses, have students summarize what the understand, or have students agree or disagree with other student responses. Through participating in these checks for understanding students have a chance to elaborate on the material and augment connections to other learning in their long term memory or signal to the teacher that parts of the material need to be retaught.

In the book Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques in Your Classroom, Fisher and Frey paint a picture of an ineffective learning experience for a student.

Checking for understanding permeates the teaching world. If you doubt that, consider the last lecture you heard. Whether the lecture was about chemical reactions, the great American novel, or the causes of World War II, the person speaking most likely checked for your understanding several times during the lecture by using such common prompts as "Any questions?", "Did you all get that?", "Everybody understand?", or "Does that make sense?" Rather than respond to these questions, most learners will sit quietly, and the lecturer doesn't know whether they understand, they are too confused to answer, they think they get it (but are off base), or they are too embarrassed to show their lack of understanding in front of others. Such general questions are simply not sufficient in determining whether or not students "get it."

Allow your mind to flashback to a lesson that you taught or observed that bombed. (I have many memories of learning experiences that I created that fell short because I did this.) Chances are good that the questions above were asked as described. Knowing ahead of time where common misconceptions occur for students helps determine the best places to stop and get a quick pulse on where the students are at in their understanding. There are many ways to check for understanding during instruction. Varying the instructional practice that you use for formative assessment helps keep students engaged and actively participating.

Here are three simple strategies that are easy to use to check for understanding:

Socrative Quick Question is a dependable efficient way to check students understanding. While multiple choice and true false questions can give quick feedback, the short answer option creates an opportunity for teachers to receive a lot more information from students. Quick Question requires no preparation time on the part of the content teacher. The use of Socrative also allows for every student in the room to contribute and share their thinking in a safe space. Many students would rather sit in silence than share a thought that they are unsure about.

Response cards are a quick, no tech strategy that supports active student participation. This strategy allows the teacher a quick check of understanding by visually seeing each student’s level of understanding by the scanning the student response cards by color. Response cards can be used in groups, as Dr. Waller did in the video above. (Dr. Waller is an amazing AP English 3 teacher at Bellaire High School in the Houston ISD). Response cards can also be used by individuals as @FastCrayon (Amy Fast) shared in this tweet. The use of student response cards is also demonstrated in this Teaching Channel Video.

Plickers is a blended tool that allows teachers to use technology while eliminating the need for students to have a device in hand. Students just need to rotate a card to show their answer. Teachers use the Plicker's App to scan and to project answers. Questions can be loaded previously or posed in the moment. It is simple to use, simple to set up, and only requires one electronic smart device which reduces risk of failure or technical difficulties. All students have to do is pull out their Plicker Card and they are ready for the questions. You can download a set of cards here.

@BurnsideMath shared the idea of having students glue their Plicker Card on the back of their interactive notebook. When she wants to ask a quick question, students just pick up their notebook to answer. This eliminates the need to have any device out to respond.

These are just three of a countless number of strategies that can be used in classrooms. If you are looking for additional strategies, check out these resources:

Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques in Your Classroom by Fisher and Frey.
56 Examples of Formative Assessment ( A crowd sourced slide deck by David Wess.)

Do you have some "go to" strategies that you like to use to check for understanding? I would love to hear more ideas of which strategies you have found to be effective.

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3 Tools to Use to Check for Understanding

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