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Session 5. Monitoring Learning and Including Every Student
Objective. Use quick checks and a tick list to see who is learning in a class of 40, then finish a one-page large-class action plan that includes every pupil.
In a class of 40 you cannot watch everyone all the time, so you need ways to find out quickly, and fairly, who has learned and who has not. The good news is that a few well-chosen checks give you more information than hours of marking, and they can be done during the lesson. This session shows how to build a strong quick question, how to decide what to do with the answers, and how to make small changes so that quiet and struggling pupils are not lost.
Key ideas
Check understanding at scale
- Ask a hinge question with A, B, C, D options on paper cards. All pupils show an answer at once; in five seconds you see how many are right and which wrong answer is popular.
- Use exit tickets on slips of paper. In two minutes sort them into three piles: got it, nearly, not yet. This tells you what to do tomorrow.
- Decide in advance what you will do with the result: move on if most are right, re-teach a short part if many are wrong, regroup if the class splits.
Circulate with a purpose
- During practice time, walk your planned path and look at work, not only at faces. Spend about ten seconds per pupil and write a code or tick, not a long note.
- Use a tick list: tick whom you called on, helped or checked. At the end of the day, the empty boxes show who you have not yet seen.
- Plan to visit the back and side rows first on some days. Pupils who sit far from you are the first to be lost.
Notice who is missing
- In every large class there are pupils who are present but unheard: the quiet, the new, those who speak another language at home, and those who hide difficulty behind tidy notebooks.
- Give quiet pupils safe ways to take part: think time, a partner to speak first, a written answer to read out. Call on them at a calm moment, not as a surprise.
- Look for patterns over a week, not one day. A pupil who is never ticked, never hands in work or sits alone needs a short, kind conversation.
Include every pupil: pairs, languages, extensions
- Pair a pupil who is ready to help with one who needs support, with a rule: the helper explains and asks, and does not give the answer. Change pairs every few weeks.
- Allow pupils to discuss in the language they think best in (Uzbek, Russian or another home language) and then write or report in the language of instruction.
- Prepare a must-do task for all and a challenge task for those who finish. Use the time when the class works alone to sit with a small group for five minutes of re-teaching.
A quick check in the middle of a lesson
Building a hinge question
A hinge question is a short multiple-choice question asked at a key moment. The wrong options are not random; each one should come from a likely misunderstanding. For example, in 'Which is larger, 1/3 or 1/5?' option B (1/5) catches pupils who think a bigger denominator means a bigger fraction. All pupils show a card at the same time, so you see the whole class in a few seconds.
Decide your response before the lesson. If nearly everyone is right, move on. If the class splits, ask pupils with different answers to explain to each other in pairs, then vote again. If most are wrong, stop and re-teach that part in a different way, for example with a drawing. Write the question and your three decisions on your plan.
Small changes for inclusion
Inclusion in a large class is built from many small habits rather than special programmes. Put key words on the board, read written instructions aloud, and show one example before pupils start. Seat pupils who need to see or hear better near the front. Give a must-do task for all and a challenge for those who finish early, so fast pupils are not idle and slower pupils are not rushed.
Keep a short list for conversation. Each day, speak for two minutes with three pupils who have not been ticked recently, asking what they found easy or hard. In 13 school days you will have spoken to all 40. If a pupil's difficulty stays, talk with the family and the school team early. Never announce in front of the class who is struggling.
Examples from the classroom
The fraction cards
Scene. Aziz teaches Grade 5 mathematics in Tashkent. He asks, 'Which is larger, 1/3 or 1/5?' with cards A: 1/3, B: 1/5, C: equal, D: cannot tell. On 'three, two, one' all 40 pupils show a card. Twenty-two show B. Aziz stops, folds two paper strips into thirds and fifths in front of the class and asks pairs to explain. He asks the question again and most now choose A.
Insight. A wrong option designed from a likely misunderstanding shows what to re-teach.
Three conversations a day
Scene. Dilnoza teaches Grade 4 in Samarkand with 39 pupils. She keeps a list and each day speaks for two minutes with three pupils who have few ticks. With Madina, who sits at the back and never speaks, she learns that Madina cannot read the written instructions. Dilnoza reads instructions aloud, writes one example on the board and seats Madina next to a reading partner. Within a month Madina answers in pairs.
Insight. Short, regular conversations find difficulties that tidy notebooks hide.
Two languages in one room
Scene. Malika teaches Grade 6 natural science in a Russian-medium class in Fergana where about a third of pupils speak Uzbek at home. She writes key terms in both languages on the board and lets pairs discuss in either language before reporting in Russian. For fast finishers she prepares a challenge card. Pupils who had been silent now report in pairs, and she hears more ideas than before.
Insight. Allowing the home language in pair talk and posting key words lowers the barrier for quiet pupils.
Common pitfalls
- Asking 'Does everyone understand?' and accepting a chorus of 'yes'.
- Writing a hinge question whose wrong answers are random guesses.
- Collecting the data and not deciding in advance what you will do with it.
- Pointing out struggling pupils in front of the class.
Tick List and One-Page Action Plan
- Read the sample tick list for 12 pupils over three days in your Activity Kit. Count the ticks per pupil and find those with none.
- In pairs (10 min): for the pupils with no ticks, write one low-risk way to bring each into the lesson tomorrow (for example a warm-up partner or a written answer to read out). Add one check you would use to see if it worked.
- Alone (15 min): fill in your one-page large-class action plan for a real class: challenges, routines, one active task, marking plan, monitoring and inclusion, first-month check.
- As a group (10 min): swap plans with a partner. Each reviewer asks two questions: 'Who might still be missed?' and 'What will you stop doing?'. Note one change on your own plan.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Who in your real class might be like the pupils with no ticks? How would you find out this week?
- Which part of your action plan is the smallest step you can take on Monday?
- Who will you ask to look at your plan again after one month?
Reflect
- Which pupils in your largest class did you not speak to or look at closely last week?
- What is your quickest check that all 40 pupils can answer at once?
- What one change from this course will you keep in a year?
Try it tomorrow
- Write one hinge question for your next lesson, with each wrong option matched to a likely misunderstanding.
- Make A, B, C, D cards from paper and practise showing them on 'three, two, one'.
- Start a tick list for one class and speak for two minutes with the three pupils who have the fewest ticks.
Further reading and links
Check often, in seconds, with everyone at once; keep a tick list; find the pupils who are present but unheard and plan a small, kind way to include each.