I am all about student self-checking themselves while they’re learning.
Here are some examples I’ve heard students say.
“Wait, I don’t understand why…”
“I wish she would slow down when teaching this.”
“Can you explain why…?”
“I do NOT get this.”
“Why do I keep getting them wrong?”
“I totally get this!”
I always try to teach my students to think and assess their own learning…like doing their own little formative assessment in their head.
One super easy way to do this is by using the “traffic light check-in”.
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When you think of a traffic light, green means “good to go”, yellow means “slow down”, and red means “stop”. The traffic light check-in uses the same concept.
I give each student three cups, a green one, yellow one, and a red one. I got these cups in the above picture from the Dollar Tree. They are paper, so they might not last all year long if your students were anything like mine. To keep them looking good, I would just keep them in a cabinet and pass them out for the activity.
You can also use plastic ones for more durability. I got these from Amazon.
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I have my students stack the cups on the top right hand corner of the desk so it’s easier for me to glance around and see everyone’s cup.
When students feel confident and totally understand the concept they show a green cup (with the yellow and red cups underneath).
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When students have questions or more time learning they show a yellow cup.
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When students are stuck or need help or just don’t get what’s going on they show a red cup.
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I told my students over and over again that displaying a yellow or a red cup doesn’t show anything bad or negative. I even told them the story that when I was in 8th grade I would have showed a red cup every single day in algebra. My teacher taught algebra with apples and oranges, and I had NO clue what she was talking about. And I remember being so frustrated that I just wanted to cry everyday.
This check-in system is a great way for students to evaluate and assess their learning and also for the teacher to see how students are doing with the concept. If you see a lot of red cups, then maybe you need to teach it in a different way. If you see mostly green cups, then maybe you could extend your lesson. It’s a perfect and simple formative assessment.
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I like it because it’s super easy for me to scan the room and do a quick assessment of the class and see how everyone is doing. I don’t know about you, but I’m all about the visuals.
It’s an easy way to give feedback and support to your students. Seeing a student with a yellow cup might encourage you to pause and ask what questions they have.
My favorite way to use the traffic light check-in system is to pair students up. I would tell my students “If you have a red cup, get up and go find someone who has a green cup. Sit with them for a bit.” My students just LOVED doing this. I remember one of my students who struggled academically and when she showed a green cup one day and got to be the “teacher helper” to another student she just beamed. The smile on her face was priceless. Students can explain things sometimes much better than adults. They know how to explain it in kid-friendly terms.
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Sometimes I would even pull a small group together of students who showed red cups. I might be able to figure how exactly what they didn’t understand in a couple minutes instead of waiting until the end of the lesson.
Traffic lights are always changing. They never stay on red 100% of the time. It’s the same way with the check-in system. One could start at red, then go to yellow, and then to green. Or start at green, then yellow, then green again. Students are encouraged to do a check-in throughout the lesson. I would high-five or praise my students when they went from red to green, since that can be big deal. Improvement is always the goal. It sure would have been for me in learning algebra.
For example, if I was teaching multiplication I might do 2 or 3 problems and then have them do a check-in. For my students who show red I would have them go find a “green”. I would not want to do all the problems and then do a check-in at the end of the lesson.
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It’s important to emphasize that “we’re all in this together” in the classroom. Students need to feel safe to be able to say when they truly don’t get something. The growth mindset works great with this check-in system. They need to know that a yellow or red cup is OK.
Do you use the traffic light check-in system with your students? What do you like about it?
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