How Do Your Students Know What They Know and When Do They Know It?

     How do you know what your students know?  When do you know it? What do you do once you realize that there are gaps in the learning? During my first few years of teaching I would be so disappointed on the day of the test, because I thought that my kiddos had a good grasp on the content only to see assessments roll in with incorrect answers or worse...no answers at all on some of the questions.  I knew that I needed to change something and so did my students.
     15 years later after much growth in my profession, my burning questions have grown to include 'How do my students know what they know and when do they know it?'.  I feel strongly that students must be given the opportunity to evaluate their own knowledge in a non-punitive assessment, so that they can discover where their gaps are prior to the day of the test.
     Attached is my presentation on ways to Check for Understanding presented at Marshall ISD's Destination Success Conference.  The ideas go beyond the 3 question quiz, the use of Socrative, Plickers, Google Forms, and Kahoot, all of which are wonderful tools; here I share quick and easy activites that can be incorporated into your classroom tomorrow.  I have blogged about many of these strategies over the years and have included the tag "check for understanding" on all of the posts related to the presentation.  So, if you are looking to add a little twist to your daily warm-ups or exit tickets, you are in the right place!

Checking for understanding from cwallace