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In this video the techniques had been used to supply the lesson we that I do we do you do strategy that we had been mastering approximately all through this module the teacher uses the strategy to version how she’s going approximately the wondering system as she completes the picture organizer.  At some stage in her lesson the instructor use scaffolding as she filled out the spoke diagram and he or she also allowed the scholars to take part as she finished the organizer. The way take a look at for knowledge with my taking walks around the lecture room and checking in with businesses and discussing what college students their personal graphic organizer. If the scholars needed help she changed into there to facilitate the questioning system. I have attached different check for understanding strategies that can be used in the classroom.

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It's so important to stop frequently during your lessons to check for understanding with your students. After all, is there a worse feeling than being met with blank faces after you've delivered an entire lesson? Use these strategies throughout the day to make sure everyone is on track. Here are twenty fun and simple ways to see who's good to go, who's almost there and who needs some one-on-one.

1. Use technology.

Source: The Primary Peach

One of the quickest ways to check for understanding is to have your kids hop on their device and use one of the awesome tech tools like Quizlet, Kahoot or Google forms to show what they know.

2. Ask open-ended questions.

Source: Ciara O'Neal

If you ask yes/no questions to check for understanding, some students may default to yes because they don't want to admit that they're not quite there yet. Asking open-ended questions requires a little more thought and helps draw out where they really are.

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3. Ask students to give a physical response.

Image source: YouTube

This can be a fun way to end a lesson, and students love it! Ask students to do something like put their hands on their head for yes and stand on one leg for no. Or ask a question and tell students to clap once if the answer is true and do jazz hands if it is false. Use your imagination and change it up each time.

4. Use emojis.

Source: Teach and Shoot

Prepare cards to leave at students' desks like the one above. Let students attach their clips to show their level of understanding.

5. Ask questions "on the fly."

Stop frequently to ask questions as you go through your lesson. See if students can make connections, define words, answer questions and explain concepts. Make it a natural part of your process so that your students will know they are coming and pay attention.

6. Use checkmarks.

Source: Mrs. Beattie's Classroom

Take a page out of The Daily Five 's book and create these checkmarks to help your students remember to check for understanding as they read.

7. Show your thumbs.

Source: Shutterstock

Sometimes all it takes is a quick thumbs up or thumbs down (or even thumbs sideways) to make sure your students are all still on board. Stop frequently to check in and have your students hold them up high so you can take account.

8. Use exit tickets.

Source: Mr. Elementary Math

Download this cute freebie to create these exit tickets. Students can write the question of the day at the top and turn in their responses on the way out.

9. Flash whiteboards.

Image source: Pinterest

Ask one quick question that shows students are keeping up and have them write their answers on individual whiteboards. Do a quick sweep before they put them down. Pull any students together that still need more and re-teach.

10. Give it a four-finger rating.

Source: Mrs. Wheeler's First Grade Tidbits

Teach your students this quick check method and check in often to see where everyone stands. Pair up students who flash a 3 or 4 with students who flash a 1 or 2.

11. Do a Quick Write.

Source: Sly Flourish

Ask just one question and have students jot a quick paragraph on an index card to show that they understand. Have them share their answer with a partner or collect the cards to review for the next day.

12. Post your name on the stop sign.

Source: Musings From the Middle School

This teacher blogger asks students to check for understanding by writing their name on a post-it, then attaching it to the stoplight on the appropriate color. She then groups students who need re-teaching and advises students who are ready to move on.

13. Give them a Yes/No question.

Check for understanding by asking students to flash a red piece of construction paper for no (they need a little more explanation) or a green piece of construction paper for yes (they get it and are ready to move on). Alternatively, laminate squares of red and green construction paper and glue them back to back to large popsicle sticks to make paddles for your students to show.

14. Do a self-assessment.

Source: Not So Wimpy Teacher

Download this free resource and print up a stack of self-assessment cards in different colors for different subjects. Pass them out as exit tickets to plan for the next lesson period.

15. Draw a T-chart.

Ask your students to tell you five (or whatever number you think is sufficient) things they learned from the lesson. Have them make a T-chart and on the left-hand side write a fact or opinion, and on the right side, give evidence to support their fact or opinion.

16. Do a quick sort.

Source: The Science Penguin

Ask one question that you feel shows an understanding of the concept you are teaching. Have students write their answers on cards and collect them. Sort cards into piles: Got it, Almost There, and Re-Teaching Needed. Divide students into groups based on their answers and keep teaching.

17. Pick a card, any card.

Source: Upper Elementary Snapshots

Print these free cards, laminate them, and connect them together with a ring or twist tie. Give one copy to each student to keep on their desk. When it comes time to check for understanding, students can just flip to the appropriate card, and you can do a quick check by color to see who still needs help.

18. Display mini flip charts.

Source: The Elementary Math Maniac

Make your own or if you're not the crafty sort, buy 12 of these desktop flip charts for $16.49 from Really Great Stuff.

19. Use cooperative learning structures.

Source: 4th Grade Racers

This teacher/blogger uses cooperative learning structures to check for understanding in a fun and engaging way.

20. Reference this chart.

Source: Mia MacMeekin

This amazing infographic shows all kinds of imaginative ways to check for understanding. Print out a copy and display it in your classroom for inspiration.

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Avoid the sea of blank faces at the end of a lesson with these teacher-tested and easy-to-use ways to check for understanding.

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In the video I noticed the teacher used the think aloud strategy, the modeling strategy, graphic organizer strategy and the I do, you do, we do strategy. The teacher scaffolded by starting with the think aloud, then allowing time for the students to read the section again with partner, then having students collaborate to complete the worksheet and develop comprehension skills, then the entire class comes back together to share what they have learned, and finally she lets them work independently and practice their new skill. She checks for understanding by observing and engaging in partner discussions and by completing a graphic organizer. I noticed she did not use strategies like hand signals or white boards because they did not apply to her lesson and the skill being taught. I added a link that summarizes how teachers can scaffold using prior knowledge strategies. This was something that I noticed the teacher didn't do even though she could have tied it well to engage the student from the beginning. I think it is such an easy step that often gets missed but can always enhance your lesson

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6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use With Your Students

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Support every student by breaking learning up into chunks and providing a concrete structure for each.

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In this video, the strategies that were used to deliver the lesson we the "I do" "We do" "You do" strategy that we have been learning about throughout this module. The teacher uses this strategy to model how she is going about the thinking process as she completes the graphic organizer.

Through her lesson, the teacher used scaffolding as she filled out the Spoke diagram and she also allowed the students to participate as she completed the organizer.

The ways she checked for understanding was by walking around the classroom and checking in with groups and discuss the students own graphic organizer. If the students needed assistance she was there to facilitate the thinking process.

The link I included shares 21 ways to check for understanding. It provides detailed information for how each strategy can work in the classroom.

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21 Ways to Check for Student Understanding

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Discover 21 effective methods to assess student comprehension with our comprehensive guide. Enhance your teaching skills and improve student learning outcomes.

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The entire lesson was scaffolded through an “I do, we do, you do.” The first strategy the teacher used during this lesson was a think aloud during the “I do” portion of her lesson. She begins the “I do” portion of the instruction by demonstrating her thinking out loud to students so they know exactly what to expect and how to think about the activity. Another strategy she used was the graphic organizer so that students could find the main ideas of a text and the supporting information or details of them. The next strategy she used was collaboration where the students sat with a partner to complete the activity during the “we do” portion of the lesson. During this point, she went to different groups to assess their understanding by asking questions. The next strategy she used was to bring the class back together to clear any misconceptions. The last strategy was the “you do” portion of the lesson where she had students work individually to complete the assignment. The strategies she used to check for understanding was to ask students questions during the “we do” portion of the lesson and the “you do” portion of the lesson served as another way to check for understanding.

I chose this resource designed for scaffolding English Language Learners because it is important for these particular students to receive additional support when needed in the classroom.

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Grab Your FREE Set of Graphic Organizers

Scaffolding for Learning Grade-Level Content

So you have English learners who need to access grade-level content?

As you may already know, scaffolds are incredibly helpful. Let's take a look at:

1. The definition of a scaffold

2. The different kinds of scaffolds

3. How to use scaffolds

4. Download some free graphic organizers below.

The Definition of a Scaffold

A scaffold, as the metaphor suggests, helps lift a student up to a level they might otherwise be unable to reach.
For our purposes...
...we'll be focusing on English language learners. For a student with an English proficiency level below that of a native speaker, a scaffold is basically anything that helps that student better understand and interact with grade-level content.

Different Kinds of Scaffolds

There are many different kinds of scaffolds. Here is a list of some of the most common types:

Pictures - Any images or videos illustrating vocabulary, concepts or events make for wonderful scaffolds

Graphs - Graphs can also help students visualize information they may not be able to understand from simply listening or reading.

Sentence Starters - Sentence starters, or sentence frames, help students express ideas using academic vocabulary and sentence structures beyond their current English proficiency level.

Group Work - Group work is an engaging way to let students process material, check understanding, fill in gaps, translate, illustrate, or write about the concepts they are learning.

Praise & Encouragement - You might argue that this is not really a scaffold so much as it is a basic teaching fundamental, but it helps to be reminded that students thrive when they are praised and encouraged for the productive struggle they make towards goals each class. Since our English learners come from a different culture and language, it helps to find particularly meaningful and powerful ways to praise and encourage them so that the message is sent loud and clear.

Tech - Technology can be an incredibly helpful tool for scaffolding learning for students if it isn't overused. Tools like Seesaw, Flipgrid, and Buncee let students record themselves with audio or video. You can find great videos on almost any topic on Youtube. Quizlet and Kahoot let you create engaging quizzes. Rewordify lets you change texts into simpler language by simply cutting and pasting. TalkingPoints can translate messages between you and students' parents. Just remember that students still need you more than a screen.

Humor - I love using humor and would do so regardless of whether I were teaching English learners, but laughter helps significantly with memory, and it is just good for the soul. With beginning English learners, that humor needs to be pretty silly and basic for them to understand. For higher level English learners, the desire to understand the humor in something makes for wonderful discussions.

How to Use Scaffolds

Scaffolds are wonderful, but they shouldn't be permanent. Students who receive too much support may end up coming to rely too much on the scaffolding and not enough on their own ability to think critically.

Tonya Ward Singer in her book EL Excellence Every Day talks about how we should observe students attempting a task without any scaffolding in order to make an informal assessment of where students are struggling.

Afterward, we can decide how much, or how little, scaffolding to provide them.
With that...
If we are trying to identify the main idea and supporting details of a text, for instance, you could ask your students to attempt the goal without any scaffolds at all.

After observing your students, you could decide to hand out partially filled graphic organizers to students who are completely stuck, blank graphic organizers to students who simply need help organizing information and word banks to students who only need help with the vocabulary words needed.

Another way to decide what scaffolds to provide is to reference assessment results.

If you have WIDA Access test results, you may already have a good idea of what proficiency level your English learners are at. You can make decisions about, not only what scaffolds to provide, but what you should be able to expect from students at different English proficiency levels.

Resources for Scaffolding

Click below to download a set of free graphic organizers you can use with your English learners.

The Kid-Inspired ESL Curriculum

If you need more, the ESL Curriculum Membership provides teachers with tons of scaffolding resources:

...all to help you scaffold instruction and make sure students are on track to English fluency.

The price of a Mocha Latte. 14-Day Money-Back Guarantee.

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Scaffolding for ELLs - Resources, Activities, and Strategies

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Grab some free resources and learn about strategies and activities to scaffold grade-level content for your English language learners.

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Some strategies that I was able to identify include think out loud, graphic organizer, and “I do, we do, and you do” strategy.

Think out loud at the start of the class implemented the “I Do”, where the teacher describes the activity. The teacher as well demonstrated the spoke diagram to help outline their overall learning of the text. Then students completed partner or group activity, which helped engage students in the “We Do” part of the lesson. Finally, students complete the “You Do” part of the lesson where they summarize their learning. I was able to note some of the scaffolding with the content. It was especially notable when students were completing partner and group work, then individual work. The check of understanding used during the lesson mainly involved guided instruction as the teacher walked around the room to listen what the students are doing.

In addition to checking student understanding, I had found a site which has provided ways to informally assess student learning. Sometimes it can be difficult to track student progress, but it can be done in a fun and engaging way. There were three methods in particular that I liked. They include student self-evaluation, journaling, and paper toss. Students should be given the opportunity to reflect on their learning, but also know when to ask for help. The paper toss is a great way to allow the entire class share their thoughts, concerns or questions about something especially since so many students may not feel comfortable to ask a question.

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There are a variety of ways to assess a student's progress and understanding. Two of the primary methods are formal and informal assessments. Formal assessments include tests, quizzes, and projects. Students can study and prepare for these assessments in advance, and they provide a systematic tool for teachers to measure a student's knowledge and evaluate learning progress.

Informal assessments are more casual, observation-based tools. With little advance preparation and no need to grade the results, these assessments allow teachers to get a feel for student progress and identify areas in which they might need more instruction. Informal assessments can help teachers pinpoint students' strengths and weaknesses and guide planning for upcoming lessons.

In the classroom, informal assessments are important because they can help identify potential problem areas and allow for course correction before students are required to demonstrate understanding at a formal evaluation.

Many homeschooling families prefer to rely almost entirely on informal assessments because they are often a more accurate indicator of understanding, particularly for students who don't test well.

Informal assessments can also provide vital student feedback without the stress of tests and quizzes.

Following are just a few examples of creative informal assessments for your classroom or homeschool.

Observation

Observation is the heart of any informal assessment, but it is also a key stand-alone method. Simply watch your student throughout the day. Look for signs of excitement, frustration, boredom, and engagement. Make notes about the tasks and activities that elicit these emotions.

Keep samples of student work in chronological order so that you can identify progress and areas of weakness. Sometimes you don't realize how much a student has progressed until you compare their current work to previous samples.

Author Joyce Herzog has a simple but effective method of observing progress. Ask your student to do simple tasks such as writing an example of each math operation he understands, writing the most complicated word he knows he can spell correctly, or writing a sentence (or short paragraph). Do the same process once a quarter or once a semester to gauge progress.

Oral Presentations

We often think of oral presentations as a type of formal assessment, but they can be a fantastic informal assessment tool, as well. Set a timer for one or two minutes and ask your student to tell you what he's learned about a particular topic.

For example, if you are learning about parts of speech, you could ask your students to name as many prepositions as they can in 30 seconds while you write them on the whiteboard.

A broader approach is to present students with a sentence starter and let them take turns finishing it. Examples include:

"My favorite thing about this topic was..."

"The most interesting or surprising thing I learned about this was..."

"This historical figure was..."

Journaling

Give your students one to three minutes at the end of each day to journal about what they learned. Vary the daily journaling experience by asking students to:

list 5-10 facts they've learned about a topic

write about the most exciting thing they learned that day

list one or two things they'd like to know more about

note something that they're having trouble understanding

list ways that you could help them understand a topic better.

Let your students write questions for each other on a piece of paper. Instruct students to crumple their paper, and let them have an epic paper wad toss. Then, have all the students pick up one of the paper balls, read the question aloud, and answer it.

This activity wouldn't work well in most homeschool settings, but it's an excellent way for students in a classroom or homeschool co-op to get the wiggles out and check their knowledge on a topic they've been studying.

Four Corners

Four Corners is another fantastic activity for getting kids up and moving while also assessing their knowledge. Label each corner of the room with a different option such as strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree, or A, B, C, and D. Read a question or statement and have students go to the corner of the room that represents their answer.

After students reach their corner, allow them a minute or two to discuss their choice in their group. Then, choose a representative from each group to explain or defend that group's answer.

Matching/Concentration

Let your students play matching (also known as concentration) in groups or pairs. Write questions on one set of cards and answers on the other. Shuffle the cards and lay them, one by one, face down on a table. Students take turns turning over two cards trying to match a question card with the correct answer card. If a student makes a match, he gets another turn. If he does not, it's the next players turn. The student with the most matches wins.

Concentration is an extremely versatile game. You can use math facts and their answers, vocabulary words and their definitions, or historical figures or events with their dates or details.

At the end of each day or week, have your students complete an exit slip before leaving the classroom. Index cards work well for this activity. You can have the questions printed on the cards, written on the whiteboard, or you can read them aloud.

Ask your students to fill out the card with answers to statements such as:

Three things I learned

Two questions I have

One thing I didn't understand

What I found most interesting

This is an excellent activity for gauging what students have retained about the topic they are studying and to determine areas which may need more explanation.

Demonstration

Supply the tools and let students show you what they know, explaining the process as they go. If they're learning about measurements, provide rulers or a tape measure and items to measure. If they're studying plants, offer a variety of plants and let students point out the different parts of the plant and explain what each does.

If students are learning about biomes, provide the settings for each (drawings, photos, or dioramas, for example) and model plants, animals, or insects that one might find in the biomes represented. Let students place the figures in their correct settings and explain why they belong there or what they know about each.

Drawing is an excellent way for creative, artistic, or kinesthetic learners to express what they've learned. They can draw the steps of a process or create a comic strip to depict a historical event. They can draw and label plants, cells, or the parts of a knight's armor.

Crossword puzzles

Crossword puzzles make a fun, stress-free informal assessment tool. Create puzzles with a crossword puzzle maker, using definitions or descriptions as the clues. Accurate answers result in a correctly-completed puzzle. You can use crossword puzzles to evaluate understanding of a variety of history, science, or literature topics such as states, presidents, animals, or even sports.

Narration is a method of student evaluation widely used in homeschooling circles and inspired by Charlotte Mason, a British educator, at the turn of the 20th century. The practice involves having a student tell you, in his own words, what he has heard after a read-aloud or learned after studying a topic.

Explaining something in one's own words requires comprehension of the subject. Using narration is a useful tool for discovering what a student has learned and identifying areas that you may need to cover more thoroughly.

Invite students to act out scenes or create puppet shows from topics they've been studying. This is especially effective for historical events or biographical studies.

Drama can be an exceptionally valuable and easy-to-implement tool for homeschooling families. It's common for young children to incorporate what they're learning into their pretend play. Listen and observe as your children play to evaluate what they're learning and what you may need to clarify.

Student Self-evaluation

Use self-evaluation to help students reflect on and assess their own progress. There are many options for a simple self-assessment. One is to ask students to raise their hands to indicate which statement applies to them: "I fully understand the topic," "I mostly understand the topic," "I'm a little confused," or "I need help."

Another option is to ask students to give a thumbs up, a sideways thumb, or a thumbs down to indicate fully understand, mostly understand, or need help. Or use a five-finger scale and have students hold up the number of fingers that corresponds to their level of understanding.

You may also want to create a self-evaluation form for students to complete. The form can list statements about the assignment and boxes for students to check if they strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree that the statement applies to their assignment. This type of self-evaluation would also be useful for students to rate their behavior or participation in class.

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13 Creative, Observation-Based Assessments for the Classroom

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Informal assessments play a vital role in both traditional and homeschool classrooms. Try these creative ideas to assess student progress.

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I was clearly able to tell that the teacher used an "I do, We do, You do" strategy. She worked on spoke diagram to show how a good reader is supposed to think. The teacher did a great job in demonstrating this. She scaffolded this by allowing them to read the text together and gather information. This was portrayed in the "We do" section. To check for understanding, the teacher was strategically walking around the room hearing in on the students' conversations and helping them when needed. If a conversation is going the wrong way, she said how she will direct them in the right path and let them continue themselves.

I have included a link with 62 ways to check for understanding. A few were mentioned in the previous articles, but this one shares some different ones I thought students would like. The main ones I liked were the strategies that has students determine main ideas in a sort of brain dump or discussing/debating ideas to see if the students truly understood it.

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Checking for student understanding is an integral part of the learning process. Having several methods for determining what your students have taken away from a lesson is highly beneficial for both 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 and attended to. They'll retain more from each lesson, which will increase their confidence and accelerate their progress.

With that in mind and using an English Language Arts lesson as an example, here are over 60 ways to check for understanding. Take these ideas and adapt them to your classroom and subject.

1. Ask open-ended questions

Often, a simple "do you understand?" leads to misleading responses. Instead, ask questions that lead to definitive answers, based on what you're studying.

When you've identified a student that doesn't understand a particular point, ask if anyone else is confused by the same thing. Now knowing that they're not alone, other students will be more likely to speak up.

Have your students rate their understanding out of five, using their fingers. This is more effective when you establish what each number of the scale means ahead of time and using it as often as possible.

Give them a quiz at the end of an exercise. Use Classcraft's Boss Battles to turn review questions into fun classroom games.

Give your students a quick quiz halfway through an exercise, particularly if there's a lot of material to cover.

Split them into teams to write questions for each other.

Alternatively, have your students write questions for you!

Ask students to identify the keywords from a passage or video, and to justify their responses.

Select several words central to the lesson, and have the students provide definitions in their own words.

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.

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.

Have them complete a series of pre-written sentences. For example, "My favorite part of the story was when __________."

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.

Test your students' understanding of new vocabulary by asking for antonyms.

Have your students scan a sample of text for synonyms of particular words.

Ask your students to provide other examples of something you're learning about.

Have them write down what they perceive to be the main idea of the lesson.

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.

Ask them to reflect on and write down the author's or narrator's main point.

Alternatively, give your students a particular statement and ask what they think the meaning is.

Ask your students to summarize their key take-aways 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.

Have them summarize the lesson in two minutes. Walk around the room, and take a quick peek at their answers as they write.

Give your class a question, set a two-minute timer, and allow them to write a short response.

To ensure compliance, a twist on the above is to require an answer to a question before your students get to leave class for recess or home.

This is a great way to test their 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.

Give your students a longer essay for in-class writing or homework.

Establish a learning journal in which 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 have a more thorough look later.

After journaling, pairs of students read each other's journals. You could have each student share what they learned from their partner's journals.

This is a good option for team projects.

Before a lesson, have them write down what they already know about the subject and what they want to know. Afterward, have them write down what they learned.

Have them sketch a picture, or series of pictures, of what they've learned.

Have your students create a comic strip based on their key take-aways or favorite moment from a particular lesson, reading, video, etc.

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.

Alternatively, your students can create a collage. This is ideal if you have lots of magazines and papers lying around.

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.

After an initial part of a passage, namely a story, ask your class to infer what happens next based on contextual clues.

Ask your students to put themselves in a character's shoes and write down or explain what they would do in a particular scenario.

Have your students write a letter to one of the characters offering advice. This is a great way to make them more engaged with what they are reading.

Alternatively, have them reflect on a time in their lives when they felt like a character you're studying. It can be them or someone they know. This helps them to connect to the story.

Ask your students to express which character appeals to them the most and why.

Create simple self-assessment forms containing options for expressing 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."

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.

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.

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.

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. This is great for getting them up and moving if they've been stationary for a long time.

This is a variation of the above where you pose multiple-choice questions and set up each corner to designate the options.

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.

Have a student teach their partner what they learned. Then, have the partner share what they've just been taught. This works best if you can split an exercise into two and have them swap roles.

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 the same thing confused other students.

Prepare a series of questions that require a 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.

Split the students into groups, and have them act out their interpretation of what you just studied.

Have them discuss their main take-aways and then present them to the rest of the class.

For a nice 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.

Give the students small whiteboards and a marker. Periodically ask questions, and have them write an answer on their board and hold it up.

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, the simplest being to give them red, yellow, and green cards to hold up.

Give them a worksheet outlining the main points of what you've just studied, in random order. Ask them to rearrange them correctly. This can work well in a history class if you want your students to recall chronological events.

This 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.

Get your students to rank ideas from the lesson using different criteria, such as easiest to hardest, most to least important, etc.

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.

Have each student add a distinctive take-away or opinion to a collective sheet of paper that gets passed around the room. Two or more sheets are best for larger group sizes.

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.

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62 ways to check for understanding - Classcraft Blog

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After the lesson is over, there are plenty of simple ways to check that students have an understanding of the concepts you've just taught.

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In this video the "I do, we do, you do" strategy was the main focus. The class started by creating a concept map together and the teacher used the think aloud strategy to explain to the students where she was getting her information and how she was building connections within the area. Next Ms. Montgomery takes student input and moves to "We do". Lastly, in the CFU the students try to replicate a similar concept map for another topic to demonstrate their understanding.

The link I chose to share was 50 ways to check for understanding in a virtual classroom. I think that a lot fo students slipped below grade level in the pandemic because teachers either couldn't see them because cameras were off or the body language wasn't as obvious. In case this year becomes virtual again I think that this link would be helpful. My favorite technique is the 5 words to describe this topic is...

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Are you a chat pod offender?!

Do you rely on a single chat pod for student responses? Or do you frequently vary the student response methods? If the chat pod is your best friend, it's time to re-evaluate your relationship; you are an offender!

Hey, don't be too hard on yourself; it's incredibly easy to fall into the habit of only using the chat pod, but I challenge you to think for a moment: is this the most effective method for every single question? For some, yes! For others, no.

We all know that students love to repeat each other's answers, even if they are incorrect! Not to mention that sometimes the chat becomes cluttered with off-topic comments or questions, leaving student answers hidden amongst other debris. In order to truly measure what your students know, you must vary your response methods and ask students to respond frequently and diversely. Remember that providing immediate feedback is a critical step in the formative assessment process.

I stumbled across a list of 53 Ways to Check for Understanding and decided to add a cyber twist. I present to you: 50 Ways to Check for Understanding in the Virtual Classroom!

Want to see these ideas in action? Come to my workshop on Friday, November 21st at noon.
50 Ways to Check for Understanding in the Virtual Classroom

1. The 411
* Describe the objective (author's objective, lesson objective, research objective, etc.) in a short answer pod.

2. Explain Your Solution
* Ask students to describe how they solved an academic problem, step by step, in the chat pod.

3. Offer Another Solution
* After working through a problem, ask students to offer different ways to solve the problem in a specific chat pod.

4. Outline
* Represent the organization of _______ by outlining it in the Q&A pod.

5. Interview You
* You're the guest expert on 60 Minutes. Answer:
1. What are component parts of _______?
2. Why does this topic matter?
3. Share in the Q&A pod.
4. Call on students to share responses with their microphones.

6. Bio Poem
* To describe a character or person, write a poem that includes:
* (Line 1) First name
* (Line 2) 3-4 adjectives that describe the person
* (Line 3) Important relationship
* (Line 4) 2-3 things, people, or ideas the person loved
* (Line 5) Three feelings the person experienced
* (Line 6) Three fears the person experienced
* (Line 7) Accomplishments
* (Line 8) 2-3 things the person wanted to see happen or wanted to experience
* (Line 9) His or her residence
* (Line 10) Last name
* Share in the chat pod. If you have a small group of students, give each student his/her own chat pod.

Download a PDF Version
Thanks for stopping by!

Never stop learning,

Ashly

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50 Ways to Check for Understanding in the Virtual Classroom | Ashly Locklin

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Are you a chat pod offender?! Do you rely on a single chat pod for student responses? Or do you frequently vary the student response methods? If the chat pod is your best friend, it's time to re-evaluate your relationship; you are an offender!

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A strategy I identified in the video was “I do, we do, you do”. This was identifiable because Ms. Montgomery provided explicit instruction while discussing the spoke diagram. During this instruction, Ms. Montgomery was framing her thoughts into a ‘Think aloud’ so students can do the same during their individual time/ guided instruction. Her guided instruction and the spoken graphic organizer explanation were examples of scaffolding the content to the class. The strategy that Ms. Montgomery used CFU to describe important characteristics of the main information within a text. She learned that students were acquiring the information of the text while reading, and some students were not. This showed her students who will need more guidance or a redirection of their ideas.
1 Strategy

Teachers can have students record their thought process and answers while in class or at home during individual work or partner work when Checking for Understanding. There may be students who are behind in reading or penmanship skills, I believe they will benefit from answering questions verbally when the lesson permits it.

https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/4-ways-audio-recording-can-boost-classroom-learning

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4 Ways Audio Recording Can Boost Classroom Learning

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4 Ways Audio Recording Can Boost Classroom Learning

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The social studies teacher is teaching reading comprehension strategies to her class. She begins the lesson with "I do" by modeling a think-aloud and showing how to use her spoke diagram graphic organizer. Her students use "we do" during their partner work, discussing the comprehension strategy and completing a spoke diagram together. Finally, she moves to "you do" by challenging students to apply the strategy on their own text independently. She checks for understanding throughout the lesson, especially as she makes the rounds during partner work popping in on different groups. She checks again after "we do" by having a whole group discussion where she can give feedback before students try it on their own. The lesson outline of I do, we do, you do is a scaffolded design. Moreover, the teacher emphasizes listening as an important scaffolding strategy. By listening to student thinking and needs, she is able to adjust the lesson. Finally, the graphic organizer can be used in other disciplines for students to begin scaffolding learning on their own.

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1. I identified the explicit instructional model in this lesson as the teacher moved through I do, we do, you do. The teacher began with the think-aloud strategy as she worked on a spoke diagram (I do). Her purpose behind this was to demonstrate what she was thinking so students knew what a good reader would think about when reading this text.

2. Scaffolding was done by the gradual release of responsibility strategy, from I do to we do, to you do. She paired students in the we do stage who read the text together and then they bounced ideas off each other. Once she felt like they were ready to move on, the students used their own spoke diagram to generate information from a new text.

3. The teacher mentioned that she walks around the room to listen and understand where their thinking may be breaking down. This is a clear example of checking for understanding. She then has them do independent work as a way to informally assess their new-found knowledge of visually breaking down a text.

4. The spoke diagram is something that can be used in explicit instruction that I did not see in the articles.

5. Find something to share!

https://learn.teachingchannel.com/video/jigsaw-method

In the jigsaw method, students are divided into groups with different tasks. The students are at the center of the learning; they translate the information into their own language and get to teach their peers. The teacher can check for understanding when the groups share their completed task with the class.

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. How does focusing on one element of the text encourage close reading?

2. Notice how the groups share their findings with the class. How does this deepen understanding for both the sharers and the listeners?

3. In what ways is the jigsaw a time-saving strategy?

School Details

Chinook Middle School
2001 98th Ave NE
Bellevue WA 98004

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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Jigsaws: A Strategy for Understanding Texts

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As an introduction to learning about persuasive speeches, 8th grade ELA teacher Julie Manley has her students analyze how the argumentative elements appear in a piece of persuasive writing. She divides her class into groups and has each group look at the text through the lens of one argumentative element, noting how that element is used.

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The I do, We do, You do model is evident from the start as the teacher models writing on the Spoke diagram on the board. She proceeds to read aloud to the students while explaining that she is going to read it one time then she will go back and review what the facts were within the text. During her read through, the teacher would also pause and make commentary of what she had just read in order for students to comprehend even further what was taking place. Her lesson then goes into the We do which is the Stable Food Supply activity. After this activity, the teacher takes this opportunity to check for students understanding and helps them if needed. Lastly, the You do is the Roll the Dice activity with a partner. The strategies used by the teacher in scaffolding were very effective as she paid attention to the progress of her students by maintaining check-ins throughout the lesson.

I chose the above link because the viewer is able to see students not understanding the material. It was interesting to view how this specific teacher was able to handle this as she continued to check for understanding. She started out with asking her students to raise their hands and tell her what their level of understanding was (a fist meaning their understanding is not great). She was able to meet with each student and personally figure out where their confusion is. I also appreciated that this teacher took the time to address the class as a whole and discuss common misunderstandings. She mentioned that checking for understanding ultimately drives the lesson. I found that this statement was very true as a teacher ultimately must be able to shift their lesson pending students understanding.

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I think the way she used I do, we do , you do was very clear from the beginning. She starts by reading to the students, and as she reads she is explaining what her thoughts are. She also is modeling how to read and how to look at the illustrations and relate them to the book. The teacher scaffolded the lesson by modeling (I do), then guided practice (we do), then assisting them as they do the work on their own. I really love that she said she is never standing still and she puts a lot of effort into listening to her students.