Faculty Development

3-2-1 Classroom Assessment Techniques

3-2-1: A Classroom Assessment Technique

Shared by: Beth Lasky, Special Education

Learning objectives/skills fostered:

“This strategy provides a structure for students to record their own comprehension and summarize their learning. It also gives teachers the opportunity to identify areas that need re-teaching, as well as areas of student interest and or background.” (http://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/3-2-1).

How/why is this a culturally relevant teaching practice, high impact teaching (HIP) or high operational practice (HOP from Pedagogy of Confidence framework)?

This strategy can be used to Amplify Student Voice because it allows the students to reflect and monitor their own learning.  In addition, it fits in with the Pedagogical Flow Map in that it enables the instructor to assess learning that has, or has not, occurred.

Learning challenge addressed:

Student voice, checking for understanding, and assessing our own instruction.

Context best used for:

Use Three-Two-One at any time during the class session to encourage students to think about their learning:

  • As a Check for Understanding during any portion of the lesson
  • During class discussions as a way for students to record their thoughts
  • As a closing activity so that students can review what was learned in the lesson
  • As an exit ticket at the end of the class period

Materials needed: 

3, 2, 1 Handout OR three posters and students post their responses on posters with Post-its.

What to do/ how to do it:

Three

After the lecture, discussion, etc., have each students record three things they learned from the lesson.

Two

Next, have students record two things that they found interesting or that they’d like to learn more about.

One

Then, have students record one question they still have about the material.

Check out this video of a teacher demonstrating and discussing this technique: http://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/3-2-1

Review

Finally, the most important step is to review the students’ responses. You can use this information to help develop future lessons and determine if some of the material needs to be taught again.

Tips for successfully implementing:

A nice variation is to change what they write about.  For example:

Three most important points about this topic.

Two ways I can apply this topic.

One experience I have previously had with this topic.