Using check for understanding strategies as part of your instruction is an integral component of the learning process. Having several methods for determining what your students have taken away from a lesson is beneficial for you and them.
As a teacher, you don’t have to wait for your students to struggle with homework or underperform on a test to identify points of improvement and gaps in knowledge. You’ll be aware of them far sooner—and be able to address them quickly. Your students will feel more heard. They’ll retain more from each lesson, which will increase their confidence and accelerate their progress.
With that in mind and using an ELA lesson as an example, here are 62 ways to check for understanding. Take these ideas and adapt them to your classroom and subject.
Checking for understanding examples
1. Ask open-ended questions
Often, a simple “Do you understand?” leads to misleading responses. Instead, ask questions that provide definitive answers based on what you’re studying.
2. Who else doesn’t understand?
When you’ve identified a student who doesn’t understand a particular point, ask if anyone else is also confused. Now, knowing that they’re not alone, other students will be more likely to speak up.
3. Give me five
Have your students rate their understanding out of five using their fingers. This strategy is more effective when you establish what each number on the scale means ahead of time and use it as often as possible.
4. Quiz
Give students a quiz at the end of an exercise. You could even turn review questions into fun classroom games!
5. Midpoint pop quiz
Give your students a quick quiz halfway through an exercise, particularly if there’s a lot of material to cover.
6. Self-written quiz
Split students into teams to write questions for each other.
7. Quiz the teacher
Alternatively, have your students write questions for you!
8. Keywords
Ask students to identify the keywords from a passage or video and to justify their responses.
9. Define vocabulary
Select several words central to the lesson and have the students provide definitions in their own words.
10. Select and define
Pick and define a selection of words that stand out to your students.
11. X words to describe
Have your students describe a particular aspect of what you’ve studied (a person, place, etc.) in a certain number of words.
12. Fill in the missing word
Provide them with an incomplete summary of what you’re studying and have them complete it with a selection of predetermined vocabulary you’ve provided.
13. Sentence completion exercises
Have students complete a series of pre-written sentences. For example, “My favorite part of the story was when ________.”
14. Use vocabulary in a sentence
Make sure you’re over-emphasizing the new vocabulary you’re using when having a normal conversation. You could also create a vocabulary bingo where students try to get all the new vocabulary you used in a given time.
15. What’s the opposite of?
Test your students’ understanding of new vocabulary by asking for antonyms.
16. Find words in the text that mean the same as x
Have your students scan a sample of text for synonyms of particular words.
17. Other examples of . . .
Ask your students to provide other examples of something you’re learning.
18. Main idea
Have students write down what they perceive to be the main idea of the lesson.
19. Choose the main idea
Alternatively, present your class with a few statements from which they can choose the main idea—justifying their answers, of course. Provide more than one statement that could be the main idea, as well as at least one that’s inaccurate.
20. Author’s main point
Ask them to reflect on and write down the author’s or narrator’s main point.
21. What did they mean by?
Alternatively, give your students a particular statement and ask what they think the meaning is.
22. Key takeaway
Ask your students to summarize their key takeaways from the lesson. Better still, if possible, ask how they’re going to apply what they learned to their own lives or in other classes.
23. Two-minute summary
Have students summarize the lesson in two minutes. Walk around the room and take a quick peek at their answers as they write.
24. Two-minute essay
Give your class a question, set a two-minute timer, and allow them to write a short response.
25. Leave the class pass
To ensure compliance, a twist on the above is to require an answer to a question before your students leave class for recess or their homes.
26. Enter the class pass
This strategy is a great way to test students’ understanding the next day or after a break. Have your class answer a question or provide a fact before they get to enter the class.
27. Essay question
Give your students a longer essay for in-class writing or homework.
28. Learning journal
Establish a learning journal where your students can freely express their thoughts and consolidate their learning after certain exercises or at the end of the day. You can quickly scan their entries as they write and then look more thoroughly later.
29. Paired journaling
After journaling, pairs of students can read each other’s journals. You could have each student share what they learned from their partner’s journals.
30. Team journaling
This strategy is a good option for team projects.
31. K-W-L
Before a lesson, have students write down what they already know about the subject and what they want to know. Afterward, have them write down what they learned. Learn more about KWL graphic organizers, and download one below.
32. Drawing
Have students sketch a picture or series of pictures of what they’ve learned.
33. Comic
Have your students create a comic strip based on their key takeaways or favorite moments from a particular lesson, reading, video, etc.
34. Create a poster
In groups, have your students create a poster based on the lesson. Ideally, each group will present it to the rest of the class at the end.
35. Collage
Alternatively, your students can create a collage; this is ideal if you have lots of magazines and papers lying around.
36. 3-2-1
Ask your students to note three things they learned, two that they found most interesting, and one that they still don’t understand quite well. You can tinker with the criteria to better suit your purposes. Download this exit ticket and additional ones below.
37. What next?
After an initial part of a passage, namely a story, ask your class to infer what happens next based on contextual clues.
38. What would you do?
Ask your students to put themselves in a character’s shoes and write down or explain what they would do in a particular scenario.
39. Share their suggestions in a letter
Have your students write a letter to one of the characters offering advice. This strategy is a great way to make them more engaged with what they are reading.
40. Reflect and relate
Alternatively, have them reflect on a time when they felt like a character you’re studying to help them connect to the story.
41. Which character would you be?
Ask your students to express which character in a story appeals to them the most and why.
42. Self-assessment cards
Create simple self-assessment forms containing options for students to express their understanding of what they’ve learned. For instance, you could include options like “I fully understand,” “I understand a little,” and “I don’t understand.”
43. Debate
When studying a topic with scope for discussion, split your class into different teams based on their opinions. They can then present their opinions and (politely) counter other teams’ arguments.
44. Snapshot debate
Give your students sheets of paper with “Agree” and “Disagree” printed on each side. Then, present a series of statements and get them to hold up the sheet based on their opinion.
45. Opinion-counter
In this format, a student offers their opinion, and another student counters it if they feel differently; this continues until no one has anything left to offer or after a set amount of time.
46. Four corners
Set up four corners of an area with a different response, such as “Agree,” “Disagree,” “In the middle,” “Not sure,” and so on. Read a statement, and have the students run to the corner that matches their opinion. Select different students to justify their choices. Students will be able to get up and move around if they’ve been stationary for a long time.
47. Multiple choice
This strategy is a variation of the above where you pose multiple-choice questions and set up each corner to designate the options.
48. Pair and share
Put students into pairs to discuss what they’ve learned before sharing it with the class. Make sure both students get a turn to talk.
49. Teach your partner
Have a student teach their partner what they learned. Then, have the partner share what they’ve just been taught. This strategy works best if you can split an exercise into two and have them swap roles.
50. I was most confused by . . .
Allow the students to express any difficulties in understanding by completing the above sentence or something similar. You can then have them share their answers and tackle a handful of them at once. You can also ask if other students experienced the same difficulties.
51. True or false quiz
Prepare a series of questions that require simple true or false responses. Ask for a show of hands for each question, and pick students to justify their response before revealing the answer.
52. Act it out
Split the students into groups, and have them act out their interpretation of what you just studied.
53. Team presentation
Have students discuss their main takeaways and present them to the rest of the class.
54. Whiteboard
For a snapshot of your class’s understanding, have them come up to the front and write what they learned on your whiteboard. Depending on the size of your class, they may need to work in teams.
55. Individual whiteboards
Give the students small whiteboards and markers. Periodically ask questions, and have them write an answer on their boards and hold them up.
56. Traffic lights
Students convey their understanding through a traffic light system, with red conveying little to no understanding and green meaning the most. There are many ways to do this exercise, the simplest being to give them red, yellow, and green cards to hold up.
57. Reorder
Give students a worksheet outlining the main points of what you’ve just studied in random order. Ask them to rearrange them correctly. This strategy can work well in a history class if you want your students to recall chronological events.
58. Card sort
This strategy is a group variation of the above: You provide each group with cards that, when ordered correctly, combine to provide an outline of the lesson.
59. Ranking
Have your students rank ideas from the lesson using different criteria, such as easiest to hardest, most to least important, etc.
60. Opinion columns
Get your students to divide a page into two columns. In the first column, they write an opinion on what they’ve just learned. In the other, they provide their justification for that opinion.
61. Pass a sheet around the class
Have each student add a distinctive takeaway or opinion to a collective sheet of paper that gets passed around the room. Two or more sheets are best for larger group sizes.
62. Variation of the above, but with speaking
If your students can’t think of anything, they can simply say “pass.” Encourage them to add something a little later if anything comes to mind.
This article was adapted from a blog post initially developed by the education technology company Classcraft, which was acquired by HMH in 2023. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of HMH.
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