Recently, I've decided that one of my goals, as I build up my archive of materials, is to have no undefined terminology in my teaching materials. (Some terms which I have been using, and which I think are obvious, might not be to new teachers.)
In a few - recent - posts, I've mentioned "concept check" or "concept checking questions" without defining what that is. So here we go:
In a traditional grammar or vocabulary lesson, there are two essential parts for teaching the meaning of a new grammar or vocabulary item. First, the meaning is conveyed. Second, the meaning is checked. The meaning is checked with what are called "concept checking questions" (often abbreviated as "CCQs".)
So, first the meaning is conveyed. This is usually done through some sort of context (a situation, a picture, a short story, etc.)
Take, for example, a recent lesson on the Future Perfect that I did. First, I found a video online that had a dialogue that made use of the Future Perfect. (If you can't find anything online, you can always make up your own story. But if you can find something usable online, so much the better.)
(Actually in this case, the video is a bit overkill. You don't need 7 minutes of the target language being used. Just a couple examples is plenty to convey meaning.)
The situation is first processed for meaning and general understanding. So, after establishing what the situation is (high school students imagining what they will have accomplished by their 10 year reunion), I then have my students predict what the accomplishments will be, and then listen to the video (first 2 minutes only) and check their predictions. And then, you could play the video (first 2 minutes only) a second time, and give the students some general comprehension questions (e.g. "What job will he have in the future?").
Then, once the students have understood the situation and the dialogue, you want them to notice the target grammar. I often do this with a gap-fill listen-and-check.
Now at this point, the students should probably have a pretty good idea of what the meaning of the target grammar is just by working it out from the context. (i.e. the meaning of the grammar has already been conveyed by the context.) But just to drive the point home, you want to use concept checking questions to make sure that they've got it.
So, you take one sentence from your context. (Just 1 is usually sufficient.) And put it up on the board or projector.
So, say we focus on this sentence:
By the time I finish college I will have mastered all of the skills I need to succeed as a pro-player.
Possible concept checking questions could be:
* Has he finished college now? (no)
* Has he mastered all of the skills now? (no)
* When will he master all of the skills, now or in the future? (future)
* When will he finish college? (in the future)
* Which is first? Will he finish college first, or master all of the skills first? (master all of the skills)
The teacher asks the questions, and the class supplies the answers. Hopefully at this point in the lesson, everyone has a good idea of the meaning, so they can supply the answers easily, and these concept checking questions just act as a final confirmation to show everyone that they understood.
But, sometimes, the concept checking questions might reveal that the class is still confused about the situation. (It happens sometimes.) In which case, then the teacher has used this check to determine that the class does not understand, and the situation will need to be reclarified or explained.
(In cases like this, in which the meaning of the grammar item is dependent on a sequence of time, concept checking questions are often used in conjunction with a timeline. The teacher can write the timeline, and as they write the timeline ask concept checking questions. e.g. "Does he finish college now or in the future?" Class answer "future", teacher then makes a mark on the timeline in the future section to indicate a point in future time where college is finished.)
It's considered good practice to not use the target grammar itself in the concept checking questions. So I wouldn't want to say, "Will he have mastered all of the skills?", because the target grammar is the future perfect, so I don't want to use the future in the question. (Although in my personal opinion, this is only a rule of thumb. Every so often, I find it useful to use a concept checking question which includes the target language--depending on the target grammar or vocabulary.)
As you can (hopefully) see, the general idea of concept checking questions is pretty simple. First you convey the meaning of the grammar/vocabulary, and then you ask a couple questions to check that the students got it.
In practice, however, it can often be difficult to think of good concept checking questions. But there are a lot of resources on hand. Youtube, for example, is full of teacher training videos on how to make good concept checking questions.
As I've previously mentioned on this blog, I find the Youtube videos of Jo Gakonga quite good. She has a number of videos on Concept Checking Questions. Maybe start HERE.
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