Checking for Comprehension in the Classroom

Getting Students to Show What They Know

As teachers, we know how important it is to check students’ comprehension.  This is an essential teaching skill no matter what subject it is.
  
Being able to receive real-time evidence of learning is critical to keeping students moving towards the lesson’s objective.  

From comprehension checking come a virtual cornucopia of benefits for both the teacher and learner.  

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Benefits of Checking for Student Comprehension

Checking for Comprehension & ELLs

1. Comprehension checks engage students.
2. Checking for comprehension helps self monitoring.
3. Students clarify their own inner criteria.
4. Everyone receives feedback in real time.
5. Comprehension checks keep students on task.
6. The teacher can assess individual students & class. 
7. Repairing small issues jump starts their growth.

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Effective comprehension checking strategies support the teaching and the learning that occurs in the classroom.  With so many advantages, it’s puzzling that we don’t check for comprehension as often as we should.  

Some of the reasons teachers may shy away from comprehension checks have to do with how they may be perceived.  The bulk of these perceptions can be summarized with the following teacher comments on why they do not do a lot of comprehension checks in their classrooms:

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Misconceptions & Comprehension Checks

1. It takes too much time.
2. I don’t want to single anyone out.
3. I do it already at the end of the lesson.
4. My students’ level is too low for this to work.

While these statements may seem extreme, they do point towards some key considerations in checking for student comprehension in the classroom.  Unpacking each of these can give us a better understanding of effective comprehension checking strategies.

Myths about checking for student comprehension...

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