4 Creative Ways to Check for Understanding

Instead, teachers try to bring up topics that are most interesting to students, and also do their best to increase involvement. They talk about current topics that arouse genuine interest among students.

One of the topics that are now becoming particularly relevant is the protection of the environment and what contribution each person can make to influence the change in the environmental situation towards a positive direction. Teachers give advice on what each student can do at home or how to take care of the environment, even when traveling with their parents. 

Many families, going on vacation to hot countries such as the United Arab Emirates, rent cars to travel comfortably. Teachers give useful advice that if students and their families rent eco-cars like Tesla, they can significantly reduce the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere. To prevent this, they can rent a Tesla, having previously compared the Tesla price in UAE, to see that such a car can be rented at a reasonable price.

Whatever topic teachers choose to teach, it is important to check students' understanding and there are many creative ways to do that.

Educational websites and apps

Technology has become a part of our lives and therefore it can also be used to teach and check for students’ understanding.

One of the best websites to help you check how well students understand a topic is Blooket. After explaining the topic to students, you can create your list of questions on the site, and then students can connect to your quiz using their smartphones. Thanks to the game mode, students will not take this as a serious test, instead, the whole class will be able to have fun. You will be able to track the progress of each student, and you can also easily determine what was not clear to the students and later explain it in more detail.

Open-ended questions that develop critical thinking

Often, teachers ask students closed questions, which makes it impossible to understand whether the topic was clear or students need a more detailed explanation. To avoid wasting time, at the end of each lesson, you can leave time to ask a series of open-ended questions and find out how they find answers, why they think the way they do, and much more. This encourages students to be more open, express their point of view, and also feel free to ask clarifying questions if something was not clear.

Open discussion

In addition to asking questions, it is sometimes helpful to have open discussions. This way of checking comprehension is the most effective for lessons with high school students. During such a discussion, a specific topic is selected on which each student can express his opinion, as well as start discussing with other students, who can explain their reasons. You can even have a class debate and divide the class into several factions for and against so that each student chooses a side and argues why he thinks so.

Polls

Many students are humble. Because of this, they do not ask clarifying questions if they do not understand something in class. In this regard, you can conduct anonymous surveys in real-time using Google. In these surveys, understanding of a topic can be tested by providing options or asking open-ended questions. It's also a great way for students to suggest topics for lessons they'd like to learn more about.

Conclusion

Teachers are interested in educating cogitative people so that they learn to think critically, as well as analyze reality. That is why it is important to check how much they understand the topics you cover. This can be done using the creative methods mentioned above.