Strategies to Check for Understanding

What You Will Learn

• Checking for Understanding activities need to be incorporated before teaching new content, during the actual lesson, and at the end of the lesson.
• Checking for Understanding activities can be verbal, written, or consist of a student demonstration.
• Checking for Understanding activities may be closed, in which there is one correct answer, or more open-ended, where students responses will vary and require higher-level thinking skills.
• The main purpose of any Checking for Understanding is to provide data for the teacher to analyze as he/she makes future instructional decisions.

Course Guiding Question:

When and how should I incorporate checks for understanding into my daily lesson plans in order to ensure student success?

Professional Development Credits

At the conclusion of the course, you will receive a certificate for 8 Professional Development Hours (Clock Hours, CPEs).

Model Teaching Professional Development Courses are pre-approved in many states and we provide easy approval forms to submit to your license granting authority if required.

If you are a teacher seeking license renewal and wish to verify acceptance of our Professional Development Courses, please view our PD STATE REQUIREMENTS PAGE to learn more about your state’s requirements.

Also, consider taking our UNIVERSITY-PARTNERED, ACADEMIC CREDIT COURSES to earn regionally accredited units or credits, accepted by most states for teacher re-licensing and salary advancement.

Approval Information About This Course for Teaching License Renewal & Continuing Education

Model Teaching has helped thousands of teachers across the country meet their relicensing requirements.

This course is Pre-Approved in the following states for License Renewal and Continuing education:

• Texas – CPE’s, TEA-Approved
• New York CTLE’s – NYSED-Approved
• Pennsylvania DOE – ACT 48-Approved
• Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI) – Approved
• Nevada DOE
• Tennessee
• Other States As Well

If you do not see your state listed here, this course may be pre-approved in your state as well. Chat with us or leave a ticket for our recommendations.

For More Information About Your Specific State Requirements, Please View Your State Requirements

Please confirm your specific district or state requirements for license renewal prior to registering and feel free to reach out to us with any questions you may have about our courses.

Topics Covered and General Course Outline

Section 1 – An Introduction to Checking for Understanding

• What “Checking for Understanding” (CFU) is and why it is used
• Three general strategies to use when checking for understanding
• How to create CFU activities with assessments and data in mind

Section 2 – CFU Before Instruction

• The purpose of CFUs before instruction
• How to develop aligned and impactful checks for understanding before instruction
• Using data to inform instruction

Section 3 – CFU During Instruction

• The purpose of CFUs during instruction
• How to develop aligned and impactful checks for understanding during instruction
• The importance of using data to correct misconceptions as soon as they occur

Section 4 – CFU After Instruction

• The importance of CFUs after instruction
• How to develop aligned and impactful checks for understanding to use after instruction
• The importance of using data to ensure student content mastery

Section 5 – CFU in Action

• Analyze the components of a lesson that uses multiple methods to check for student understanding

Helpful Resources & Templates Included With the Course

The course comes with 19 templates, tools, and graphic organizers ready to be used in your classroom!

These Include:

• CFU Strategy Guide
• Before Instruction CFU Planning Worksheet
• Before Instruction CFU Planning Worksheet-SAMPLE
• Prior Knowledge Data Tracker
• Prior Knowledge Data Tracker-SAMPLE
• During Instruction CFU Planning Worksheet
• During Instruction CFU Planning Worksheet-SAMPLE
• New Knowledge Data Tracker
• New Knowledge Data Tracker-SAMPLE
• After Instruction CFU Planning Worksheet
• After Instruction CFU Planning Worksheet-SAMPLE
• Content Mastery Data Tracker
• Content Mastery Data Tracker-SAMPLE
• CFU Lesson Plan-Scenario Sample
• CFU Lesson Plan Template
• CFU Lesson Plan Template-SAMPLE
• Effectiveness Rubric
• Implementation Observation Checklist
• Implementation Observation Checklist-SAMPLE

Register for the course Strategies to Check for Understanding now.