Check For Understanding

The age old way of checking for understanding in the past required one simple question.  "Do you understand?".  The standard reply "Yes, of course I do" regardless of the actual level of understanding.  Unfortunately, we cannot rely on this question to obtain a truthful response.

Thus we have to rely on other ways to gauge the actual level of student understanding.  One quick way I use is to have students use either a white board or a drawing app on a digital device where they work out a simple problem and raise the board or device. above their heads.  A quick look and I can see who has the problem done correctly or had trouble with it.

Here are some other quick ways to check for understanding.  Most of these can be done either on paper or digitally.

1. Exit ticket - where students do a quick problem, create a written answer to a question, or provide the next step in the process.  This does not need to take more than 5 minutes.

2.  Quizzes - only need to be short and sweet.  They need to be no more than 5 questions long and may include problems, explanations, or the next step.

3. Three color response with red, yellow, or green to show how confident the students are in doing the material.  I've seen people use cards, cups, blocks, or even pipe cleaners.  They place the color in front of them as they work so the teacher can just glance at the physical item to determine who needs help or who is doing well.

4.  Reflection - ask students to reflect on what they learned in the lesson.  This is where they include questions they still have or indicate what they still have trouble understanding or even why a certain step is done from step to another step.

5. Four corners - this activity uses multiple choice questions which might be as simple as four possible answers for an equation, to providing the answer and students choose the corner based on I agree,  strongly agree, disagree, or strongly disagree.  The only problem with this activity is that many students will go to the corner with the most people because they think that is the proper answer.

6. 3-2-1 for three things they learned, two things they need more information on and one question they have.

7.  What is wrong with the problem - this is where you purposely work a problem incorrectly and students need to find the error and explain why it yields the wrong answer.  I often choose. problem from the daily work to put up for analysis but I do  not use the name.

8. Peer tutoring.  Have students work with each other because if one can teach the other, they understand the material.  If they can't it means they need a bit more work.

9. Choral reading - In math, choral reading takes the form of reading the same equation together such as the quadratic formula, or reading the text together.  When students repeat the formula three times together, they are more likely to remember it.

10. Use a 1 to 4 rating system to allow students a chance to access their understanding of a topic.  It just requires them to answer with one to four fingers so one is they really don't understand it and four is a  they understand it so well, they could teach it.  This tells the teacher their confidence level.

11.  For vocabulary, have students come up with an example and non-example of the word.  If the word is ratio, you might show the key on a map for an example or a pot of jam for a non-example.

12.  Fill in your thoughts which is another vocabulary understanding exercise where the teacher creates a fill in the blank or blanks question or statement. such as an equation must have a ____________, other wise its an expression.

Just a few ways to incorporate checking for understanding in your classroom.  These are quick, easy, and take very little time.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.