These techniques can be used during or at the end of class. All take no more than 5 minutes. Students should complete them anonymously. After they are completed, collect them and quickly skim responses, looking for trends (i.e.: Does it seem like the majority of the class gets it? Did several students answer incorrectly in the same way?). Return to the class and make adjustments to your teaching based on what you learned. If you use a technique at the end of class, the results should inform the review you conduct at the beginning of the next class session.

1. Minute Paper: Give students a question prompt, then time them, giving them one timed minute to respond.

2. Muddiest Point: Ask students to write down what they still don’t understand or any questions they still have. Don’t let students turn in blank pieces of paper. Tell them that they need to write something.

3. One sentence summary: Ask students to summarize the main point of a text in one sentence or you can prompt them with the following question related to one topic: Who does what to whom, when, where, how, and why?

4. Documented problem solutions: Instruct students to track in a written format that steps they take to solve a problem.

5. Application cards: Tell students to generate real-world applications for important principles, concepts, theories, or procedures.

These are 5 of 50 classroom assessment techniques from Classroom Assessment Techniques (1993) by Angelo and Cross.