CCQ: Comprehension Checking Questions

CCQs are very important assessment strategies to use during all lessons. They ensure your student has understood the lesson. They are an essential part of completing a PPP-structured ESL lesson.

CCQs as Formative Assessments

Assessment: How Do You and Your ESOL Learners Know They Are Learning?

Comprehension Checking Questions are a efficient and easy informal, formative assessment strategy. targeted teacher observations. Formative assessments are not graded; they are different Fromm other types of assessments because they are for instructions. Formative assessments regularly during the lesson to check for understanding (e.g., KWL charts, Think-Pair-Share, role plays, entry/exit tickets, Total Physical Response activities. They are also informal, used throughout the year to see what students are learning so you can adjust the lessons They should be used throughout the year to see what students are learning so you can adjust the lessons.

Try these fun twists on CCQs to check your students comprehension.

Google Quiz- setting up a google quiz is an ideal objective assessment test. You can make an easy True/False quiz or become a bit creative with it.
Zoom Polls – Subjective Needs-based – make sure you explain to the students what they will see in the zoom poll before you give it to them,
Shared Whiteboard Drawing– Draw pictures www.autodraw.com on a shared whiteboard to check comprehension.
Jamboard– you can make a Venn diagram on a Jamboard and add sticky notes with various examples and ask student to work in groups to sort the answers
Ask a Self-assessment Question– ask students, “what was most helpful (or interesting) to you from this lesson ?” at the end of the lesson. Self-reflection happens at the end of a lesson. Students recap what they learned and what they need to practice more.
Fly Swatter: students use a fly swatter (or annotation stamps) to slap the correct response posted on the wall. Ask for zoom “Thumbs up”
Wheel of names – spin the wheel and ask each student a CCQ
Word wall– make a word wall to check students’ vocabulary comprehension of wordwall.net

CCQs vs. ICQs

In addition to CCQ there are also ICQs. ICQ is an acronym for Instruction-Checking Questions. They are a way to check that your students understand your directions. Use them frequently.

While CCQs are questions that you ask students to check and see if they understood the lesson, ICQs are questions you ask students to check to see if they know what to do. The former checks comprehension of the material, and the latter checks comprehension of the directives.

Both CCQs and ICQs are important for your ESL lesson. Don’t assume students understand. Never ask them, “do you understand?” They might think they understand, but they don’t. Or, they might feel nervous admitting that they donn’t understand what they must do. Instead, try asking a student a question that can only be answered if they understand. This way, you will know for sure if they understand what you are teaching them.

One great, easy ICQ is to always ask a student to explain the instructions to other students again. Any time a student joins your class late, for example, don’t repeat instructions for an activity. Instead, get i the habit of always asking a student to explain what the late comer should do.

Check out these CCQ examples from a reading of “Peter Rabbit” for example.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

CCQ : comprehension checking questions

Why did Peter go into the garden?
What did Peter’s mother tell him?
What animals did Peter meet?
What food did the farmer grow?

An example of an ICQ would be, “What is the first word of the story?” if you want them to read the story. If they can find the first word, then they have located the text and know where to begin reading. They know what directions to follow and demonstrate an understanding of the task they must accomplish.

CCQ Google Quiz Example

Here is an example of a CCQ Google Quiz I made for students. The quiz was a quick check to see if students remembered and understood the difference between our vocabulary words for our Civil Rights unit: “equity” and “equality

Create a quiz or convert a form to a quiz

Go to Google Apps, on drop down menu Open Forms.
Open a form and at the top of it, click Settings.
Turn on Make this a quiz. (Optional) To collect email addresses, next to Responses, click the Down arrow. and turn on Collect emails addresses.

My “forms” is in German, but look for the purple form icon

You can make a True/False quiz, or be creative. I asked students to classify scenarios as examples of “equality” or “equity” in order to test their comprehension of the terms.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1s8na7AFL4alACnQ8Oj5lopSF0aMPx8MBecpTZ8OdStE/edit

CCQ Jamboard Example

I also made a Jamboard with a Venn Diagram to test my students comprehension.

Create a Jamboard and use it as a quiz

Open Google Apps and Choose the Jamboard Icon from the drop down menu
Draw a Venn Diagram or two columns using the drawing tool
Write some examples on Sticky notes
Put students into break out rooms in Zoom and have students sort the sticky notes into the correct category