Checking for Understanding

Share / assign

Why it works

Formative evidence used to adjust instruction is among the highest-impact moves in the research on feedback and assessment for learning. The gain comes from acting on what the evidence shows, not from collecting it, and from reaching every student rather than the confident few who raise a hand.

The research: Black and Wiliam on formative assessment; Hattie on feedback.

The run-of-show

Choose your slot. The agenda, timings, and length update to match.

The core activity: plan two checkpoints

Teachers leave having built real checks into one upcoming lesson, with a plan for what to do with the answers.

Take one upcoming lesson and find the two moments where understanding could break down.
At each, choose an all-student check (mini-whiteboards, poll, cold call, exit ticket).
Write one hinge question: a single question whose answer tells you whether to move on or re-teach.
Decide the branch: if most students miss it, what do you do right then?

The point is to act, not to collectA check that does not change what you do next is just decoration. The value is the adjustment the evidence triggers.

Facilitator notes

Push past 'any questions?' and hands-up, which only ever check the confident few.
The hinge question is the hard part; draft one together so everyone sees what makes a good one.
Model an all-student response live so teachers feel the difference from a show of hands.

Watch the time hereThe share-out runs long if it goes whole-group. Keep it in pairs, then take two or three volunteers.

Adapt it

Elementary: thumbs, choral response, and mini-whiteboards keep every child responding.
Secondary: live polls, exit tickets, and hinge questions at the pivot points of a lesson.
Virtual: a chat waterfall or a poll gives you every student's answer at once.

Participant handout

One page for every teacher. Print it, or save it as a PDF.

K12 Academics · Professional Learning