You already know the lecture version of checking for understanding. Ask if it makes sense. Watch the nods. Carry on. The reason that fails is set out in how you know who actually understood. This page assumes you have given that up. It is a menu of checks that fit inside a normal lesson, including period 5, including the class that packs up early. The rest of the notes are on the blog.
Every technique below has a hole. The point is to pick the hole you can live with for this question, not to pretend one routine sees everything.
1. Everyone writes, you read five
Pose the question. Thirty seconds of silence. Everyone writes one sentence in the margin, or on a scrap you will not collect. You have already chosen five names, the pupils you are least sure about. You read those, in the room.
What it shows: whether those five can say the thing in their own words. What it hides: the other twenty-five. That is acceptable if the five were chosen because they are your uncertainty, and if you treat a shared error as a class error until a second sample says otherwise. It is not acceptable if the five are the nearest books.
Say the time limit out loud. An open-ended "jot something" becomes a paragraph from three pupils and a blank line from the rest. One sentence. Then pens down.
2. A wrong answer on the board
Write an answer a pupil might actually believe. Ask what is wrong with it, and what they would put instead. Give them the silence before anyone calls out, or the first voice will do the thinking for the room.
This is one of the highest-yield checks you can run, because producing a correct answer can be imitation, and finding the fault cannot. Keep the error realistic. A ridiculous mistake only tells you they were awake. The useful mistake is the one from last week's books.
What it hides: pupils who nod at the correction once someone else has said it. Follow with "write the corrected line yourself" or you have checked one speaker.
3. Mini whiteboards, run properly
Show-me boards are fast, they need no login, and they work in a room where phones stay in bags. They are also public, which means the pupil who waits half a second can copy the board in front. How to use them without lying to yourself is a whole piece: mini whiteboards versus a digital check.
The short version, if you are doing it today. Boards stay down. You ask. You wait. "Three, two, one, show." You look at the back row first, because the front has already been seen by everyone else. You ask one pupil why, someone who did not have the same answer as their neighbour.
What it shows brilliantly: a method, a diagram, a graph, a word. What it shows badly: a private reason, and anyone who does not want the room to watch them be wrong.
4. Cold call, after they have all committed
Cold calling is choosing who answers so the usual hands do not own the lesson. It is not, by itself, a check of the class. You learn about one pupil, in public. Used badly, it is a trap for someone who was not listening, and the lesson they learn is to hide.
Used well, it sits on top of a written answer. Everyone has already committed. You name someone and ask them to read what they wrote, then ask someone else whether they had the same. The routine, and how it differs from a blanket no-hands-up rule, is in cold calling versus no-hands-up.
Do not cold-call instead of a check when the decision matters. One voice, however carefully chosen, is still one voice.
5. Turn and talk, then you sample
"Tell your partner" feels like checking and often is not. The confident pupil explains. The other one agrees. Both look busy. You heard none of it.
If you use it, make it short, give them the exact sentence stem, and then sample three pairs by name. Ask the pupil who was listening, not the one who was talking. "What did your partner say was the reason?" If they cannot tell you, the talk was noise. There is nothing wrong with talk. There is something wrong with counting it as evidence.
6. One question before the bell
Leave four minutes. One question, the point of the lesson, impossible to copy from a still-projected slide. They answer. You sort got it, nearly, and a named wrong idea. You do not set homework as the check. Homework comes back too late, and a lot of it is no longer only their thinking.
This is the exit ticket, and it is the right tool when the decision is tomorrow's first five minutes. It is the wrong tool for "shall I start the practice task", because the practice task is now.
7. A private answer, when you need the names
Some questions are too exposing for a whiteboard and too important for a sample of five. Who still thinks the current gets used up. Who can actually explain the quote they highlighted. Who is guessing the French auxiliary. In those moments you want every name, and you do not want the neighbour's board in their eyeline.
That can be a slip of paper with a name on it. It can be a school device. It should not be a race, and it should not be multiple choice unless every option is a reason. A lucky one-in-four is not understanding. It is a coin with extra sides.
Pick the check to match the decision
- Shall I start the practice? A hinge, everyone showing an answer at once. If the error is shared, do not start.
- Have these five, the ones I worry about, got the sentence? Margin, then you stand next to them and read.
- Do I need a diagram? Whiteboards. Look at the back first.
- Do I need an honest reason, with names, before tomorrow? Private, written, short.
Two checks in a lesson is plenty if you mean them. Six checks that you ignore will train the class to perform understanding. They are already quite good at that.
When the private version is the one you need, and you do not want to carry the paper, type the topic into Get It?. It writes the questions, you edit them, every pupil answers on any device with a code, and you see who has got it, who is unsure, and who needs help. About two minutes. Free for a limited time, no card, no accounts for them. If there is no device in the room, use the board or the margin. A check you can run beats a better check you skip.
Questions people ask
What is checking for understanding?
Checking for understanding means gathering evidence, during the lesson, of whether pupils can do the thing you just taught. A nod, a thumbs up, or "any questions?" is not evidence. An answer you can look at, from more than the volunteers, is.
What are quick ways to check for understanding?
Have everyone write one sentence and read five. Put a wrong answer on the board and ask what is wrong with it. Use mini whiteboards with a proper show-me. Cold-call only after everyone has committed an answer. End with one question you can sort quickly. Pick the move that matches the decision you need to make.
How often should I check for understanding?
At the point where the next task depends on the last explanation, and again before you decide the lesson has landed. Two honest checks beat six ceremonial ones. If you check and then carry on regardless, pupils will stop taking the check seriously.
What is the difference between checking for understanding and a test?
A test usually produces a mark after the learning is supposed to be finished. A check is for you, in the lesson, so you can reteach, give one more example, or move on. Keep it short, keep the stakes low, and do something with the result before the bell.
Try it on one class.
One lesson. One question. Two minutes. If it doesn't tell you something you didn't already know, walk away.
Try it free — no cardStudents need no account. They just need the code.
Read next
How do you know who actually understood the lesson?
The nod is not evidence. Why "does that make sense?" tells you nothing, and how to find out in two minutes who understood, who is shaky, and who is quietly bluffing.
Mini whiteboards vs a digital check: when to use each
Show-me boards are fast and public. A digital check is private and named. When to use mini whiteboards, when they hide the pupil who is copying, and how to combine them.
Cold calling vs no-hands-up: how to find who is actually lost
Cold calling and no-hands-up are not the same routine. How to run each one without a humiliation, and why neither shows you the whole class.