When I was a new teacher, I was so focused on delivering the content that I often forgot to check how well my students were actually learning it. If I noticed they needed help but I didn’t have time, I would mentally prepare to address it in the following lesson. The problem is that the following lesson was already full of things I needed to address and there never seemed to be time to catch up.

Another issue was that back then, I would typically leave the assessments for the end of the unit. But summative assessments like these weren’t giving me the information I needed in time to respond to students’ needs before any confusion or misunderstanding they had was compounded. So while I could still speak to each student’s progress and areas of growth at the end of each unit, they needed more support even sooner – and I needed more opportunities to find out where exactly those misunderstandings were happening. 

With the guidance of a spectacular principal, I learned one of the most important things I’ve learned in my career: how to use assessment to actively support students in real time. Now, instead of strictly thinking about assessments as a way to see how students did, I build in ongoing checks for understanding to see more of what students need. Here’s how:

Don’t wait until the chapter test

For me, waiting until the chapter test to see what students know is too late – because there’s no time to go back and reteach! Similarly, waiting until the end of a lesson to assess is too late because I know that tomorrow we’ll be moving on to another skill, and some students won’t have a solid foundation. That gives me a real sense of urgency to find out exactly what students do and don’t understand as soon as possible. So by building in more formative assessments during every lesson, I’m much more able to anticipate errors, assess on the spot and hone in on misunderstandings to help students quickly get back on track and feel confident in their next steps. A major point of clarification: Not all assessments are graded. Although I am constantly marking answers for accuracy and depth of understanding, it doesn’t mean each assessment indicates a grade. Grades are incidental; I’d much rather focus on the learning.

Keep it quick and simple!

That being said, in-class assessments are structured differently than unit tests. They may be done on whiteboards, in workbooks, or digitally. They may even be discussion-based; it all depends on the skill and the task. But one thing I try to do is make a point to keep it simple and predictable. Say we’re doing a math lesson on finding the area of an irregular shape. I’ll build in a single-problem assessment after we’ve worked through an example together but before students split up into groups. Because it’s only one or two questions, I actually have time during the lesson to review every student’s work, sort their work into trends based on common errors and make adjustments on the spot that will address misconceptions and give next steps before the lesson is over. Whether it’s a computation error or confusion about how to break apart the shape, the kinds of misunderstandings students might have are usually repeated over similar questions. So just one question is often enough to identify where the breakdown is happening and what guidance students need next. It’s quick, easy and manageable for me, and the results are immediately actionable.

Less formal is NOT less effective

Checks for understanding that are even more informal are also hugely valuable, and for that, I employ a simple thumbs-up system. Before we move on to the next thing, I have students give two thumbs up for “I’m doing great,” one thumbs up for “I’m good,” a sideways thumb for “I’m sort of getting it,” and a thumbs down for “I really need to start over.” I can easily use this system at any point in the lesson to quickly gauge the room. If I see a lot of thumbs to the side or thumbs down, I know I need to reset and reteach the material. If it’s just a few sideways thumbs or thumbs down, I can work with those students in a small group. As I’m scanning the room, I’m mentally gathering groups for reteaching, reviewing and challenging. The goal is to meet everyone’s learning needs by the end of the lesson. This silent system gives them a chance to self-assess without having to necessarily verbalize their status, a key component to building a safe learning environment.

Without frequent checks for understanding, it can be hard to keep track of how everyone’s doing, especially with a large class. Once they’re off to work independently, some students will have no problem expressing their need for support while others will struggle alone without ever asking for help. This is why I keep a running checklist with every student’s name on it with a column for each question I’m using as an assessment. This is another quick, informal way to check for understanding while ensuring no one is overlooked. It’s also helpful to be able to look across a whole week and notice trends in progress overall. The perspective I get from this tool is a great fail-safe for me because it helps me know with confidence that I’ve met with every student and that nobody is slipping through the cracks. If I see that a student has struggled with many checks during the week, I’ll know it’s time to do a deeper dive and figure out what’s going on and what they might need – all before the unit test! So we get as much time as we can to address those misunderstandings and build their confidence.  

Work with the structures you have

Now, none of these ongoing, informal assessments mean that I’m starting from scratch in every lesson. Instead, I’m using what I already know about my students and building in more opportunities to support their learning and support me in organization and planning. One example is how we use activity stations. Stations are like a playlist. Not every activity is required of all students. Students can also choose which stations they visit based on their self-assessment criteria. I designate them “Must-Do’s” and “Can-Do’s” to ensure that students have the time and the flexibility to do the amount of tasks that work for them. Unlike centers, where students practice different skills based on their specific needs, each station offers a different path to the original learning objective. In math, that can look like scaffolded practice problems at one table, a video and review at another, word problems based on the concept at a third, and the last station would be the teachers’ rotating groups. 

Sometimes I teach a whole-class lesson and then disperse the class into stations. Other times, I teach the skill in small groups, rotating them in and out of their stations to my table. Regardless of how the lesson is structured, before we split into stations, everyone gets a pre-assessment to help me see what they might need. Again, this worksheet could be just one math problem because it needs to be easy for me to check right then and there.  

Planning the next lesson and looking ahead

Groupings normally aren’t pre-determined, nor are they fixed. I don’t know which students will need what help before I give that check for understanding. I group students based on what they show me at that moment. Of course, during the lesson, if I see some students have a more urgent need for review or a reteach of the concepts, I can provide that on the spot as well as make a note for the following day’s lesson. 

One last reminder

There’s no one-size-fits-all to instruction or assessment. Students don’t always show what they know on standardized tests or under high-pressure situations. But if we look at the data they give us holistically – unit tests, discussion questions, do-nows, exit tickets and informal checks for understanding as valuable kinds of assessments – then we get a better picture of our students as learners.

Ultimately, that knowledge helps us show students how much we care that THEY GET IT. We are there to challenge them when they master the material, and we’re there to support them when they need a bit more time. I’ve noticed my students are more motivated to get it right in a way that has nothing to do with their grades and everything to do with their genuine understanding. They’re more comfortable opening up, speaking up and digging down into their questions so we can resolve them together. By building in more of these informal, formative assessments for students to share what they need, we’ve built a real culture of learning in our classroom.