Checking for Understanding

As teachers we need to constantly be checking for understanding. We have teachers that truly give students all of the exploration for the content and therefore do not teach much. They feel their position is facilitator. On the opposite end of the spectrum there are teachers who are lecturing from bell to bell. Each one of these teaching styles has its place in the classroom. In both cases the teacher must be sure to Check For Understanding. In either of those classrooms if the teacher does not check to see if the students understand the topic or content there could be students that get all the way to the test and not have a clue what they are supposed to know or worse totally misunderstand the topic or content.

Teachers need to remember to ask those important questions several times a class period to see what the students know. This could be by setting a timer and every 10-15 minutes ask a question. You could actually insert a text box in a power point or google slide presentation where the students can see what the question is. This will remind both the teacher and the students some of the important information.

A Check for Understanding can be a question and answer piece with the class, you could have the students turn to a partner and discuss the question. Students could do a matching activity either at their desk with physical manipulatives or on the computer screen with a slide.

Teachers should prewrite the 3-5 questions they plan to ask within their class time. This does not mean that there will only be those questions asked but it is the base for the class period. There are times when you as the teacher think the students have understood the content and then got to the summative test and the students bomb it. When that happens you know that there were not enough checks for understanding made.

Once you have started to plan for the questions and the possibilities of confusion this will become a habit. The first couple of classes it may seemed forced. It is not forced it is planned. Checking for Understanding is vital to understand what your students know and where reteaching needs to happen. We want our students to be successful.