Strategies For The Classroom: Did The Students Understand?
The main thing in the classroom is to teach the children something. But the teachers also have to be sure that the pupils have understood everything correctly. To check this, there are a few strategies that are useful. You can learn more about it in this article.
With these strategies, teachers no longer have to just hope that the exam results will be good. Rather, they can know in advance whether they have done their job well. In other words, whether they made everything understandable to their students or not.
As a rule, the problem is as follows: The teachers are dependent on the tests. Only on the basis of this can they check whether the children or young people have correctly understood the material they have studied in the classroom. But then, regardless of the results achieved, they continue teaching with the following subjects in the curriculum.
Only a few teachers take the time to deal more closely with any weaknesses and misunderstandings on the part of the students after the exams. And even then it is often too late, the learners have already lost interest. So it’s obvious that a change is needed: one needs to rethink the approach to assessing in the classroom.
In this sense, it is important as a teacher to always be attentive to possible comprehension problems. Because in order to convey the material to the students, it is not enough to explain it well. In addition, you always have to closely monitor whether everyone in the classroom has understood everything. The moment any doubts appear to arise (even if there is perhaps even a slight frown on the part of a student), teachers should be able to act directly and respond appropriately.
The following simple strategies will help you with this. In this way, teachers can quickly and easily check whether everything has been correctly understood in the classroom.
Avoid “yes / no” questions in the classroom
First of all, it is important not to ask any decision-making questions in class. In other words, questions to which the answer can only be “yes” or “no”. Also very open questions like “Is that clear?” it is better to avoid it as a teacher. Because normally the students always answer “yes” to these questions.
When later on several people in the class admit that they haven’t understood anything, the teachers are of course surprised. So in order to avoid such surprises and to help students better follow the material in the classroom , very specific questions should be asked. This is because it is those who get the students to apply their newly acquired knowledge as well as the knowledge they already have.
Offer moments of reflection on the topic under discussion
For example, teachers can use the last five minutes of the lesson to ask students for a brief reflection on the topic being discussed. They should think about the negotiated material and then write down in a few lines what they have learned.
The teacher then collects these written reflections and then goes through them. In addition, the task can also be this: The children or young people should briefly explain how they could apply what they have learned in practice.
Hand signals to check understanding in the classroom
Another way to check whether everyone in the classroom has understood the material is this: First of all, a series of hand signals is determined together. With these, the pupils can then evaluate the conveyed content and show their understanding of it. This strategy requires the engagement of the whole group of students and it allows teachers to test understanding in a large group.
So, for example, you can set the following hand signals: The pupils raise their hands and either show all fingers or just a few or just a single one. This allows you to point five fingers when you think you have achieved a maximum understanding of the subject matter. And fewer fingers depending on how good or bad they rate their understanding. In this case, a single finger would mean that the learners think they have understood next to nothing.
Signs as a sign of understanding
The following strategy works in a similar way: the pupils create different signs with which they can display answers throughout the school year. All possible materials that are available anyway can be used for this: individual writing boards, cardboard or simply sheets of paper. As already indicated, this can be turned into signs that can be used throughout the school year and with several possible answers.
With this system the teacher can easily check the answers of the individual students. For example, a green sign can show that the children have understood everything. Orange means that the child in question only half understood the subject. Red can make it clear that the teachers and students still have a lot of work to do.
The “Socratic method” in the classroom
The so-called “Socratic method”, as the name suggests, goes back to Socrates. The aim is to open up and develop topics and materials in an open dialogue with the learners. You start from a certain text that you read and analyze together. You can also use a picture, song or video as a starting point.
The pupils ask each other about an important topic related to the chosen text, picture or song. These questions form the beginning of a conversation, which in turn will give rise to further questions and answers.
In this way they learn to formulate topic-specific questions. This enables them to have their own discussion. In this way they can come to a new understanding. Teachers can check to what extent the student group understood the material by carefully following this dialogue of questions and answers.
In summary, the most effective way to check your understanding of the topics covered in the classroom is to do so while you are dealing with the material. Because afterwards it makes little sense to ask the pupils to fill out a questionnaire on this subject. If you only try to correct mistakes and close knowledge gaps in retrospect, it will not work. Because the learners have already lost interest.
