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 quickly stunts 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...

Myth #1:  Comprehension checks take away from instructional time

Time:  As with any step in the lesson, comprehension checking costs time.  The amount of time spent on comprehension checks depends on how they are done.  There are both inefficient and efficient ways to check for student comprehension.

Contrary to what we may think, comprehension checks save time & help us get the most out of the time we have.

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Effective Comprehension Checks

1. Comprehension checking by asking, “does everyone understand?” or “any questions?”
   
2. Checking every student’s comprehension level before moving onto the next step.
   
3. Checking the comprehension of the students that you know already understand.
   
4. Checking students’ comprehension on a variety of things at once.
   

Ineffective Comprehension Checks

1. Getting students to demonstrate their understanding of the language and concepts.
   
2. Checking the comprehension of a random sampling of students and moving on.
   
3. Comprehensions checking the students that you think are struggling.
   
4. Use focused comp checking to pinpoint strengths and challenges.
   

Ideally, the output should always be greater than the input.  This is true in lesson planning (I’m not going to spend 4 hours preparing for a 45 minute lesson), teaching (students need to do more work than I do), and comprehension checking.  

If the amount of time you spent on checking for comprehension was greater than its benefit, consider how to make it more efficient by examining the way you do them.

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Myth #2:  I don't want to single anyone out

Affect:  Fearing that comprehension checks might psychologically damage a students’ ego, while a bit extreme, does highlight the effects our approach to comprehension checking has on students’ affect (emotional state).

Often, in our desire to ‘protect’ our students by not performing comprehension checks does more harm than asking them to show what they know.

More than likely, it is not comprehension checking that agitates a student; it’s how the comp check is done that may increase students' affect. 

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Making comprehension checks SAFER

1.     Safety:  Students who feel safe to make mistakes won’t become as anxious with comprehension checks and will be more willing to take ‘risks’.
2.     Attitude: The way we approach comprehension checks and the message we send when a student responds shapes students’ attitudes towards comp checks.
3.     Frequency:  The more often we check for comprehension, the more students grow accustomed to it and the more open they become to it.
4.     Equanimity: Making sure we comp check students who have it and students who don’t shows equanimity; it’s not just the high level learners that do it.
5.     Returns:  Students who see benefits in comprehension checks, welcome them.  We do this by using comp checks to help students clarify language & tasks.

Asking students to demonstrate their understanding in front of others can cause anxiety; how we frame this influences student’s affect {emotional state}. 

A comprehension check that is done in a supportive manner produces less anxiety and more accurate results.

Myth #3:  I check for comprehension at the end and that's enough

Frequency:  There is no doubt that the end of a lesson is an essential place to check for student comprehension.  It informs us of who met (didn’t) the lesson’s objective and informs us of what needs to be recycled or focused upon in the next class; yet, one or two comprehension checks per class is not enough.

Waiting until the end of the lesson to do a comprehension check also could produce unwanted consequences.

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Negative consequences of not comprehension checking throughout the lesson

• It could be too late in the lesson to go back and repair misunderstandings.
  
• Students could leave feeling confused or unsure of what they learned.
  
• If a point(s) had been made clearer, more students may have met the objective.
  
• Time may have been spent practicing the language incorrectly.

These consequences can be avoided by placing comprehension checks throughout the lesson.  Normally, it’s much easier to redirect students once they get off track rather than waiting until they’re completely lost. 

On-going comprehension checks encourage students to monitor their production & their peers. 

Myth #4:  The level of my students is too low to comp check

Level:  It is true that a student’s proficiency level may impact how you check for comprehension.  After all, less proficient students may have little language to understand or perform the comprehension check.  

Rather than throwing the baby out with the bath water, look for ways to differentiate the task.

Teachers need to modify the way we check for students’ comprehension based on their language proficiency.

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Differentiating comprehension checks

• Use visuals or gestures to perform the comprehension check.
  
• Encourage non-verbal responses from the students.
  
• Provide more wait time to the students.
  
• Use a limited number of varieties of comprehension checking strategies.
  
• Purposefully teach language students need to voice their comprehension.

The comprehension checks we use should reflect the focus of the lesson and the proficiency level of the learner.

Comprehension Checks = Learning Opportunities

Comprehension checks are learning opportunities for the teacher and for the students.  Both learn what is comfortable and what needs more attention.   

The more we check for comprehension, the more the teacher gets to 
know the students and the more the students get to know themselves.

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