Checking for Student Comprehension
How do you get students to show you what they know?
The number one job that a teacher has is to assess his/her
students. It is knowing what the students know and what they don’t
that gives teachers the information they need to set their students up for
success. Comprehension checks are invaluable assessment tools.
The trick is always, ‘how do I get them to show me what they
know?’ Once we figure this out, we
can give students an opportunity to demonstrate their level of understanding and adapt our instruction according to their needs.
There are both effective and not-so effective ways to
check for comprehension. Here are five
typical ways teachers check student understanding:
- The Look: This instructor looks at the students’ faces and thinks, “They all seemed to understand.”
- The Feeling: This teacher scans the classroom with his/her intuition and says, “It really felt like they were getting it.”
- The Question: This educator asks the class if they understand and states, “I asked them and they all nodded, yes.”
- The Test: This instructor uses formal test, reviews it and considers, “It looks like they’re getting this but not that.”
- The Show & Tell: This teacher gets the students to show they understand and considers, “What is this telling me about the students’ needs?”
