How Do I Know If My Students Are Understanding the Material?

Teaching with Valor Podcast: A Veteran Teachers Perspective

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Welcome back to Teaching with Valor, the podcast where we dive deep into the world of education, uncovering the strategies that make teaching not just a profession, but a calling. I’m your host, Don Fessenden, and today’s episode focuses on a question that sits at the heart of every teacher’s practice: How do I know if my students are understanding the material?

If you’ve ever been in front of a classroom—whether it’s elementary, middle, or high school—you’ve likely had that moment of doubt. You’ve just delivered what you thought was a great lesson, but as you look around the room, you see a mix of blank stares, a few raised hands, and some students who are just plain checked out. The big question is, how can you tell if they’re really getting it? And perhaps even more importantly, how can you adjust your teaching in real-time to ensure that no student falls behind?

In this episode, we’ll explore strategies for assessing student understanding during and after your lessons. We’ll talk about the importance of both formative and summative assessments, how to gather feedback from students in real-time, and what to do when it becomes clear that students aren’t grasping the material. Whether you’re teaching in an elementary classroom, guiding middle schoolers through complex ideas, or preparing high school students for exams and life beyond school, understanding how to measure comprehension is essential.

We’ll also look at how to foster an environment where students feel comfortable sharing when they don’t understand something—and we’ll give you practical tips to ensure that you’re not just assuming comprehension based on a few nods or quiet students.
Show Notes
For more information on this topic checkout the following resorces:

• Edutopia – Formative Assessment Strategies: www.edutopia.org - Practical tools for checking student understanding in real-time.
• Visible Learning by John Hattie: Research on effective feedback and assessment strategies.
• Socratic Seminars and Questioning Techniques: www.teachthought.com - Ideas for fostering deeper student discussions and understanding.
• Teaching Channel – Assessing Student Understanding: www.teachingchannel.org - Videos and resources for formative assessments and checking for comprehension.
• Classroom Assessment Techniques by Angelo and Cross: A resource book offering a range of strategies for formative and summative assessment in the classroom.

Stay tuned for more episodes, and remember, every student is unique, and every classroom can be a place where all students succeed. Keep teaching with valor!