Effective teaching is a dynamic process that goes beyond just simply delivering the curriculum. At the heart of this process is checking for understanding.
This practice allows teachers to gauge what their students have understood in real-time, serving as a compass to guide their instructional decisions.
Just as a traveller arrives at a crossroads and must choose a path, teachers must make choices about the direction of their lessons based on their students' responses and the teacher’s active observations.
Following my first article focused on building a culture of questioning and encouraging student participation, in this second of three articles, we will explore the importance of checking for understanding and how questions can be a powerful tool for enabling this, providing the springboard for responsive teaching.
Checking for understanding
Checking for understanding is not just a routine task for teachers, it is the backbone of responsive teaching and effective instruction.
It is an on-going informal assessment process that occurs throughout a lesson, helping teachers ascertain whether students are grasping the material being taught.
This practice is not limited to the end of a lesson or a unit test – it happens in real time, ensuring that students are on track as the lesson unfolds. The process of checking for understanding can be used for (although is not limited to):
- Checking what students currently know (and don’t know).
- Gathering information to decide if you can move on, slow down or need to reteach.
- Reviewing the depth of prior knowledge so we know what needs to be retaught before new knowledge can be introduced.
- Checking retention of knowledge from previous learning experiences.
- Knowing the extent to which students have an embedded misconception.
The decision on what to do next is driven by your students' responses to the questions you ask and their performance in the tasks you set.
Do you move forward because a proportion of the class seem to understand, or do you pause and reteach if you sense confusion or misconceptions?
Your ability to make the right decision hinges on your skill in effectively checking for the right understanding. This is why knowing your curriculum and the powerful knowledge you want your students to know and understand is key before you decide on how well something has been learnt.
Do now activities
One example of how we can use questions to enable responsive teaching is through a “do now” activity at the beginning of the lesson. This short three-to-five-minute task provides an opportunity to use strategic low-stakes questions to gather information to check students’ prior knowledge or retention of knowledge before layering new knowledge.
The type of questions will vary depending on the intention of the knowledge being retrieved but could include:
- Multiple-choice.
- Short answer facts.
- True/false.
- Recitation of quotes and facts.
- Annotating diagrams.
- Creating lists.
After students have completed the do now activity, you can use further questioning to gather live data on what students have remembered and then decide whether something needs to be retaught before moving on.
Using technology and mini-whiteboards
In recent years we have seen schools take advantage of digital software which can be used to generate quick live data on students’ performance in order to help teachers decide what to do next – examples include Educake, Seneca and Carousel Learning.
These kinds of digital platforms allow you to see data on knowledge retention over time to see how well the curriculum is being learnt. This is an important part of the lesson because you don’t want to move on and begin layering new knowledge if prior knowledge isn’t secure.
During the lesson there are opportunities to check for understanding through the use of mini-whiteboards as well, which help students to recall knowledge in a low-stakes way and provide live data for the teacher. Mini-whiteboards can provide key benefits including:
- Teachers can give instant feedback to dispel any misconceptions.
- Teachers can quickly spot non-participation and realign pupils to contributing, offering support if required.
- Students can easily erase their answer so are more likely to give the question a go because they are not committing to an answer in their exercise books.
- Teachers can quickly scan the room to identify any misconceptions and address them straight away.
The key to successfully using mini-whiteboards as a tool to check for understanding is establishing a routine. Spend time creating this routine and be explicit about how you want your students to use the whiteboards to build scholarly habits. This might include:
- A clear countdown for students to be ready to reveal their answers on the board such as 3,2,1 show me.
- Showing students how to hold their boards up so that their responses can be seen clearly.
Hinge questions
Once you have established strong routines, mini-whiteboards can be used to check for understanding. One approach is providing hinge questions at points in the lesson to check retention of knowledge.
Students write a letter on their board to correspond with the options provided for the question. Asking several of these questions allows the teacher to decide if students have any misconceptions. Wrong answers can be explored with students through the use of probing questions.
Alongside using whiteboards for hinge questions, other options include students drawing annotated diagrams, completing sentences, or planning answers to longer extended application tasks.
Final thoughts
Checking for understanding is not just a tool for teachers; it is the lifeblood of effective instruction. The teacher's ability to gauge students’ understanding in real time is paramount in preventing misconceptions, addressing gaps in knowledge, and tailoring new instruction.
Strategies like those I have shared in this article and others can enhance this process, allowing teachers to make informed decisions each time they arrive at the educational crossroads.
Next week, in the third and final part of this series, I consider designing powerful questions that go beyond surface knowledge. Read this article here.
- An experienced school leader and principal examiner, Michael Chiles has been teaching for more than 15 years. His latest book Powerful Questioning: Strategies for improving learning and retention in the classroom (Crown House Publishing, 2023) is out now, Visit www.crownhouse.co.uk/powerful-questioning
Further reading
Last term, SecEd published a five-part series written by Matt Bromley and focused on creating a questioning classroom.
- Part 1: 13 techniques for teachers: Published November 1
- Part 2: 38 Socratic questions for your teaching: Published November 8
- Part 3: How to encourage debate and discussion: Published November 15
- Part 4: The purpose and timing of questions: Published November 21
- Part 5: Practical questioning techniques: Published November 28