describe how the concept of "checking for understanding" is embedded in

Direct Instruction theory and practice. Include references to specific

practices in Direct Instruction.

In reading the Direct Instruction outline the first sort of reference to

Checking for Understanding that I ran into was in Part 1 step 32. It states
that initial instruction involves, as with other parts, frequent assessment.
This means to me that when you are initially teaching or instructing, you
want to assess frequently to check for student understanding. This should let
you know whether to continue or if you need to take the time to instruct or
assist. It also gives you an opportunity to check your own technique or
method to make adjustments or confirm that it is working.

In part 2 of the Direct Instruction, general techniques, under part A,

Preparation, it states that the teacher is to do Placement testing before
instruction begins. This is another way to check for understanding. You are
seeing what students already know and you can then group them together
homogeneously based on current skills and curriculum knowledge. This will
make the teacher more efficient as it saves time to do small group teaching
rather than individual teaching to students who have similar skills or
problems. It gives more skillful and engaged students the chance to continue
at a more steady pace. The Direct Instruction method also provides a
general instruction format in which the teacher models, leads and then tests,
to check for understanding. The teacher then makes corrections or does
repetition as needed so that students are firm. The teacher can use this
checking for understanding to then use pre corrections based on previous
errors.

Finally on part 3 under principle methods almost each step has the substep
(teacher knows how to) test immediately whether students have learned
and know exactly how to correct student errors in. Checking or
understanding is embedded in Direct Instruction as the teacher is frequently
and constantly checking that students understand the instruction and using
the information they gather to then reteach or correct. I think back on what
we learned about Formative assessments in how Direct Instruction ask the
teacher to check for understanding in the moment to make adjustments
during the course of the curriculum. This may have a lot to do with why it
has been shown to be successful.