Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques For Your Classroom

Fisher, Douglas and Nancy Frey. Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques For Your Classroom. 2007. 156p. ISBN 978-1-4166-0569-0. Available at PROF 371.27 FIS.

One of the most important, but often overlooked, task teachers have is to ensure that students understand the material they present. This short volume describes several techniques that can be employed to move away from calling on outstretched hands and instead focusing on the entire group. This allows teachers to determine what students know, how they know it, and what remedial steps must be taken to ensure that the material imparted is acquired.

Fisher and Frey look at several methods of checking for understanding, such as using oral language, asking questions, using writing, projects, performances, tests, and common assessments and consensus scoring. Each of these broad subjects are explored and several suggestions and techniques are presented, as well as ways in which some checks are not appropriate.

Several charts compare the advantages and disadvantage of different techniques, while other charts present information and samples for each of the techniques described. Even for the veteran teacher, there will be several new techniques that can easily be used in the classroom to facilitate checking for student understanding.