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Check for Student Understanding
Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction [FREE NEW GUIDE]
Jamie Clark
October 10, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes
👋 Hi buddy!
In this edition of ⚗️DistillED, we’re looking at one of Rosenshine’s most important principles — Checking for Understanding (CfU). Checking for Understanding is about diagnosis in real time: gathering evidence of what students have actually grasped — and acting on it before misconceptions set in.
What is Checking for Understanding?
CfU is the ongoing process of asking students to show you their thinking so you can adjust teaching immediately. Rather than asking “Does that make sense?” or “Who can tell me the answer?” you ask targeted questions so every student demonstrates what they’ve understood. Here’s what Rosenshine had to say:
“The more effective teachers frequently checked to see if all the students were learning the new material… In contrast, the less effective teachers simply asked, ‘Are there any questions?’ and, if there were no questions, they assumed the students had learned the material and proceeded to pass out worksheets…”
Think of CfU as a bridge between teaching and learning: it’s not about testing for a grade but about giving you and your students a clear picture of what’s secure, what’s shaky, and what needs reteaching right now. Essentially, CfU is:
Diagnostic, Not Summative: It reveals understanding in real time.
Inclusive and Active: Every student shows their thinking.
Responsive and Actionable: It shapes what happens next in the lesson.
A Habit, Not a Bolt-on: Woven through instruction at planned intervals.
The visual below shows the five essential elements for CfU according to Carl Hendrick and Haili Hughes from their recent webinar on How Teaching and earning Happens - Checking for Understanding. It maps out the key decisions teachers make — when to check, how to check, the level of difficulty, who participates, and what happens next — so you can plan CfU deliberately rather than relying on ad-hoc questioning.
So why is CfU so important? Let’s jump into some key research…
Why is Checking for Understanding Important?
CfU sits at the heart of effective teaching because it changes the tempo and direction of a lesson. Done well, CfU moments make learning more visible and more equitable — especially for students who might otherwise slip under the radar. What’s more, Rosenshine explains that checks are important for consolidating learning and transferring new information into long-term memory.
“These checks provided some of the processing needed to move new learning into long-term memory. These checks also let teachers know if students were developing misconceptions.”
CfU utilised frequently throughout a lesson helps maximise learning because it:
Prevents the Illusion of Learning: Students can appear engaged but misunderstand key ideas. CfU exposes these gaps.
Strengthens Memory: Answering questions, summarising steps, or applying ideas triggers retrieval and elaboration, embedding learning in long-term memory (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006).
Enables Responsive Teaching: Short low-stakes feedback loops beat delayed marking cycles (Black & Wiliam, 1998).
So, how do we ensure CfU isn’t just a quick afterthought, but an engine for real-time diagnosis and responsive teaching?
Let’s explore.
How do I Effectively Check for Understanding?
To make CfU effective, it needs to be deliberate, inclusive, and feedback-rich. Before using the 6-step routine below, keep these foundations in mind:
Keep It Diagnostic: Focus on just-taught content and use quick, low-stakes checks that reveal what students have actually understood, not how engaged they look.
Make It Inclusive: Design checks so every student participates — mini-whiteboards, cold call with wait-time, think-pair-share, turn and talk.
Act on the Evidence: Plan how you’ll respond to what you see. If less than ~80 % grasp it, reteach or adjust; if most have it, extend or deepen.
This diagram, developed by Carl Hendrick and Haili Hughes, shows how CfU can be deliberately sequenced across a lesson rather than left to chance. It maps a progression of low-stakes questions and tasks—from activating prior knowledge to self-assessment—that together make student thinking visible, reveal misconceptions early, and give teachers evidence to adapt instruction.
Checking for Understanding Formats
Checking for Understanding isn’t just “ask a question at the end.” Vary the format so it’s active, inclusive, and feedback-rich. See Tom Sherrington’s Rosenshine’s Masterclass video for more on high-leverage CfU routines.
Here are some practical options when implementing Checking for Understanding:
Show Me What You Know: Use mini-whiteboards, finger voting, or digital polls to get an instant whole-class picture before moving on.
Teach It Back: Ask students to summarise, explain, or model a process to a partner or the class to surface misconceptions.
Probe & Follow Up: Cold call a range of students, then ask “why?” or “how do you know?” to deepen thinking and expose reasoning.
Agree–Disagree + Why: Present a statement or answer and have students indicate agree/disagree, then justify their stance.
Think-Pair-Share-Check: Give students a brief question to answer individually, discuss with a neighbour, then sample responses publicly.
Repeat the Directions: After giving instructions for a task, call on a couple of students to restate the steps to ensure clarity.
Defend Your Position: Ask students to give an opinion or solution and then support it with evidence or a counterexample.
Here’s a simple six step approach to help develop a CfU culture in your classroom:
Step | Explanation | Example |
|---|---|---|
1. Signal the Purpose
| Make it clear to students that these checks are diagnostic, not a test. Explain that showing their thinking helps you adapt teaching and helps them spot gaps early. | “I’m going to ask some questions as we go — not to grade you, but to see how well it’s landing so we can adjust together.” |
2. Plan the Sequence
| Pre-plan a run of CfU questions moving from recall to deeper application. This keeps checks intentional rather than ad-hoc. | → Baseline: “Write one example from last lesson.” → Misconception probe: “True or False — explain why...” → Contextual application: “How could [concept] solve [real-world scenario]?” |
3. Vary the Modality
| Use different formats so every student can respond — verbal (cold call, think-pair-share), written (mini-whiteboards, exit slips), or visual (diagrams, gestures). | “Everyone sketches the process on your mini-whiteboard… 3,2,1—show.” |
4. Involve Everyone
| Don’t rely on volunteers. Build a supportive no-opt-out culture with neutral tone, wait time, and consistent routines. | “I’ll give you 20 seconds to think, then I’ll ask three people to explain their reasoning.” |
5. Probe Reasoning
| After an answer, follow up with “why?” or “how do you know?” to surface misconceptions and deepen thinking. | “Turn to your neighbour and explain why we subtract here, not add — then I’ll pick a few to share.” |
6. Act on the Evidence
| Use what you learn to reteach, clarify, or extend. Without adaptation, CfU is just a box-tick. | “I’m seeing some boards with negative signs — pause, let’s fix that together before moving on.” |
Until next time — keep charting the course so every learner arrives at mastery.
Jamie
Free Downloads
Checks for Understanding Guide Free Download
To help you build purposeful Checks for Understanding into every lesson, I’ve created a one-page guide based on Carl Hendrick and Haili Hughes’ How Teaching and Learning Happens webinar. This printable, editable resource summarises the key ideas from the session and walks you through each stage of effective CfU: baseline questioning, recognition checks, first application, probing misconceptions, procedural checks, contextualised application, and self-assessment — so you can design lessons with ongoing, rapid feedback loops.
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Checking for Understanding Lesson Planner Free Download
To help you build purposeful CfU into every lesson, I’ve created a one-page Lesson Planner Template — an editable, printable sheet where you can map out each stage of checking for understanding: baseline question, recognition check, first application, probing misconceptions, procedural checks, contextualised application, and self-assessment.
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DistillED+ Checklist and Slideshow
This week’s ⚗️DistillED+ resources are a Checking for Understanding Checklist and a CPD Slideshow. Together, they walk through the WHAT, WHY, and HOW of using CfU to surface misconceptions early, make thinking visible, and adapt your teaching in real time so every student stays on track.
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