Check for Understanding

Do Now
List some techniques you use to
check your students’ understanding
while you are teaching. Place your
sticky notes on the chart paper.
What is check for understanding?
❏ Check for Understanding is not meant as
a student performance indicator.

❏ It is intended to gauge student

understanding throughout a lesson.

❏ Allows the instructor on-the-spot

adjustments to instruction.
Common Errors Made by Teachers
1. Excessive use of “OK”

2. Asking questions that assume your students

understand

3. Asking students if they “have any questions?”

1. Questioning your students understanding when

Four Effective Strategies for Checking
Understanding (Madeline Hunter)
1. Signal Answers

1. Choral Responses

1. Sample Individual Responses

4. Individual Private Response

Signal Answers
Strategy: Pose a question or a problem and have
every student signal the answer

● Hand signals that visually represent answer are most

effective.

● Quickly identify students with correct answer

● Allows teacher to know who needs help or who doesn’t

understand
Choral Responses
Strategy: Pose a question to the class and get a
choral response from all students

❏ Weak response-more instruction may be needed

❏ Strong response- readiness to move on
❏ Allows a student that doesn’t know the answer a chance to
learn the correct response
❏ Gives all students a chance to share their response, not just
one student.
Sample Individual Responses
Strategy: Ask a question to the whole class
E.G. “Why did Germany invade Poland?”

❏ Call on individual students for answers

❏ Able to make inferences by the ability level of student

 Individual Private Response
Strategy: Pose a question to the students and have
them write a brief response.

❏ Circulate the room to check for understanding

❏ Able to select strong answers to model for rest of class
❏ Provides thorough information from all the students during
the lesson
Examples: Writing Prompt in the middle of a lesson, Exit Tickets
 Fun Ways to Check for Understanding
❏ Four Corners
❏ Quiz, Quiz, Trade
❏ Inside, Outside circle
❏ Response Cards
❏ Visual representations

http://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/category/
C7
 Fun Ways to Check for Understanding
using Technology

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Which of the following is not true about the individual private response
strategy?

A. Teachers can circulate around the room to gauge the level of

understanding
B. Teachers can select strong student work to use as a model
C. It gives the teacher accurate information regarding an individual
student's level of understanding
D. Teachers can't gather accurate information using this strategy