CEED Blog: CEED Blog

“Did You Get That?  Really?  Did You?  Are You Sure?”  The Importance of Comprehension Checks

SCENE: Interior, suburban home, Anytown, USA.  PARENT is cooking dinner while TEENAGER lounges on the sofa in the next room, engrossed in something on their phone.

PARENT: Remember, you need to clean your room before we leave for soccer practice.  OK?

There is a long moment of silence from the other room. 

PARENT: Hon, did you hear what I just said? 

The silence from the other room continues.

PARENT: Hello, Earth to teenager . . . . Did you hear what I just said or not?

TEENAGER (without looking up from their phone): Yes!  OK, yes, I heard you.   

A moment passes, after which TEENAGER enters the kitchen.

TEENAGER: OK, so I’m ready.  Are we leaving for practice now or what?

PARENT: Is your room clean? 

TEENAGER: You never said anything about cleaning my room!  Why are you always springing things on me at the last minute?  Yeesh!

TEENAGER storms off in a huff.

Much as we may love the young people in our lives, it’s safe to say that often they don’t listen as well as we would like.  (To be fair, a lot of “grown-ups” aren’t that great at listening either.)  And even when they do listen, sometimes they misunderstand us, or our message gets lost among a multitude of distractions.  That’s true as a parent and, of course, as a teacher.  We’ve probably all had the experience of feeling that a class went particularly well, students seemed focused and engaged, our lecture seemed particularly clear – only to see students bomb the quiz on that day’s topic.  Unfortunately, it’s not enough to assume that students have understood what we covered in class.  And just as in the scenario above, it’s also not enough to simply ask students if they understand or have any questions.  If we want to make sure students understand essential concepts and information – the foundational material in our courses – we need to be deliberate and intentional about checking their comprehension. 

Checking students’ comprehension doesn’t have to take up much class time; in fact, it’s better if it only takes a few minutes.  The information gained from a quick comprehension check can help us determine if there are concepts we need to review, topics that might be useful to include on a practice quiz, etc.  The goal is simply to see how well students understood a key idea from class.  And since students will need to build on that key idea as they learn more, checking comprehension during class (rather than at exam time) saves us and our students headaches in the future. 

Here are a few simple ways to check students’ comprehension during a class:   

• Exit tickets:  Exit tickets are a simple but powerful strategy you can use to gather a wide range of information about what students are (and aren’t) learning.  Typically, with just a few minutes left in class, each student gets a slip of paper with one or two questions to answer.  (Any more than two questions is usually too many.)  Comprehension questions should ask about core concepts from the day’s class, not small details.  For instance, after a biology lecture about cell production, students might be asked to write down two key differences between meiosis and mitosis.  Exit tickets should not be graded: this is not a quiz, and the tickets are for the instructor’s benefit and information. 

In addition to comprehension questions, exit tickets can be a great way to solicit questions, ask what students are still confused about, or help students reflect on their learning.  One big advantage of exit tickets is that you get answers from every student in class, not just the strongest or most talkative students, providing a much more accurate picture of student comprehension. 

• Mid-lecture/lesson questions: It can also be helpful to check comprehension in the middle of class, especially when it’s essential that students understand one concept before moving on to another.  Software like Pear Deck and EdPuzzle can help you embed comprehension questions into slide presentations or recorded lectures so they become a seamless part of class. 

Students might answer a question in writing, but they might also answer in pairs or work in groups to solve a problem using a key concept from the day’s class.  (For instance, during an economics lecture on supply-and-demand, students could pair up to solve a problem about how weather conditions might affect produce prices.)  If you’re feeling ambitious, you can even use software like Slides With Friends to poll students anonymously using their cell phones.   

Again, it’s important that every student get a chance to answer the question, and that you get a sense of how most or all students in the class are answering.  Mid-lecture questions also have the advantage of breaking up a long lecture or lesson, which makes it easier for students to maintain attention and retain information. 

• Retrieval Practice: This teaching strategy, which I learned from James Lang’s outstanding book Small Teaching, has become one of my favorites.  We begin class by asking students to explain an important concept from the previous class meeting.  They can answer in writing, but this often works better as a brief class discussion – especially if you do it regularly.  Don’t be surprised if you hear silence the first time you try it!  Students can find this kind of recall difficult, and it’s important to let the silence linger while students are trying to remember.  While the goal is to review key content from the course, the process of remembering is equally important.  The exercise helps students practice retrieving information from long-term memory, and that practice builds the neural networks students need to retain information and recall it more easily in the future. 

Many of us are good at pausing during lessons to ask students “Is that clear?” or to see if they have questions about what we just covered.  Unfortunately, many students aren’t willing to speak up in class if they are confused or don’t understand; they worry about sticking out or appearing stupid in front of their peers and us.  This is particularly true for first-generation students, who may suffer from imposter syndrome and feel like they are the only ones who don’t grasp the material.  Building the confidence to ask questions in class is, of course, an important skill, one we want to help our students develop during their time at Massasoit.  But as they’re working on that skill, we can implement simple ways to check their comprehension to make sure they’re grasping essential concepts and not falling behind.