Title: Why Check for Understanding?
Headings: Chapter 1. Why Check for Understanding?
Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom, 2nd Edition
Chapter 1. Why Check for Understanding?
What Is Checking for Understanding?
Know the Difference Between a Mistake and an Error
What Checking for Understanding Is Not
Figure 1.1. Comparison of Formative and Summative Assessments
How Is Checking for Understanding Related to Other Teaching Initiatives?
Understanding by Design
Figure 1.2. Stages in the Backward Design Process
Differentiating Instruction
Figure 1.3. Mariana's Character Map
Framework for Intentional and Targeted Teaching ™
Tips for Success
KEYWORDS
Requesting Permission

Content: Of course, these responses should be directly related to the purpose and performance goal. The best feedback provides students with information about their progress or success and what course of action they can take to improve their understanding to meet the expected standard (Brookhart, 2008). Ideally, feedback occurs as students complete tasks so that they can continue to master content. If learning is the goal, teachers should not limit feedback to a summative review but should rather provide formative feedback that students could use to improve their performance. For example, in a unit of study on writing high-quality introductions, Kelly Johnson provided her students multiple opportunities to introduce topics using various techniques such as humor, questions, startling statistic, direct quotation, and so on. For each introduction they produced, Dr. Johnson provided feedback using a rubric so that students could revise their introduction and use that information on their next attempt. She did not simply note the mechanical errors students made but rather acknowledged areas of success and provided recommendations for students to focus on in their next drafts. Feed-forward: Modifying instruction. The final component required for creating a formative assessment system involves using data to plan instruction.