Title: The Importance of Checking for Understanding
Headings: The Importance of Checking for Understanding
The Importance of Checking for Understanding
What is Checking for Understanding?
Research behind Checking for Understanding
Why is Checking for Understanding so beneficial?
Citations
Why do you use CFU? How can Checking for Understanding help you in your classroom? Please share any examples, comments, or feedback below.
Author: Patricia Bogdanovich

Content: Also, teachers who asked a large number of questions had higher student participation. Furthermore, teachers were able to assess if the students understood the content, which allowed the teachers to make modifications of the lesson or reteach when necessary. Rosenshine observed that successful teachers found ways to involve all students in answering questions. Examples include having all students: Tell the answer to a neighbor
Summarize the main idea in one or two sentences, writing the summary on a piece of paper and sharing this with a neighbor
Writing an answer on a card and then holding it up
Raising their hands if they agree with the answer that someone else has given
The National Research Council recommends implementing formative (on-going) assessments such as checking for understanding in order to improve instruction. The National Research Council frames such assessment as the process of teaching scientifically: Teachers collect information about students’ understanding almost continuously, and make adjustments to their teaching on the basis of their interpretation of that information. They observe critical incidents in the classroom, formulate hypotheses about the causes of those incidents, question students to test their hypotheses, interpret students’ responses, and adjust their teaching plans. Why is Checking for Understanding so beneficial? Using research-based strategies, the DataWORKS Explicit Direct Instruction model incorporates Checking for Understanding during a lesson because: