Checking for Understanding & Feedback
The Hinge Question
Plan one question that shows you, partway through the lesson, whether to move on or reteach
Use this when
What is it?
A hinge question is a planned check used at the point in a lesson where everything that follows depends on students understanding the current idea. Every student answers at the same time, usually by choosing from multiple-choice options in which each wrong option represents a specific misconception. Because those options are diagnostic, about a minute of scanning can tell you whether to move on, reteach or address one particular misconception.
The steps
- Find the hinge when you plan the lesson. Identify the point where the rest of the lesson depends on students understanding one idea. That is the hinge. Write the question for that moment while planning the lesson. If there is no such point, an Exit Ticket may be more useful.
- Write one question with diagnostic wrong answers. Multiple choice is usually the best format. Base each wrong option (known to test writers as a distractor) on a mistake you have seen students make. Choosing a wrong option should reveal which incorrect idea the student holds.
- Choose how everyone will answer at once. Students can respond with fingers for A to D, letter cards or Show-Me Boards. Ask them to answer on a count so that nobody can wait and copy a neighbour.Question on the board. Thirty seconds' silent thinking. When I say show, hold up your answer: one, two, show.
- Scan the room and count roughly. You need only a rough proportion. As a guide: if nearly all are correct, move on; if one wrong option is popular, address that idea; if most answers are wrong, reteach. Adapt these thresholds to the class and the topic.
- Follow the evidence and tell the class what you saw. Make the decision within about a minute. Describe the pattern aloud:About half of us chose B, so we're going back to it.Plan your response to each option before the lesson so that you can act promptly.
- Keep every question you write. A good hinge question takes much longer to write than to ask. Save it with the lesson and note which misconception a popular wrong option revealed. A shared department bank distributes the workload.
What it looks like
Ms Marsh is twenty minutes into a lesson on adding fractions with a class of 13-year-olds. She has reached the point where everything that follows requires common denominators. The board shows 1/3 + 1/4 with four options. She included option B, 2/7, to represent the error of adding the numerators and denominators directly. "Thirty seconds' silent thinking. One, two, show." A few students hesitate and look sideways, so she resets: "Your own answer, please. One, two, show."
Roughly a third of the class holds up B. "Thank you. B is the most common trap in this topic. Tell your partner why 2/7 can't be right." She redraws both fractions as bars, listens to the discussion, then asks a similar question five minutes later. Four students choose B this time. She moves on and notes in her plan that the misconception behind option B is still causing difficulty at the back table.
How you’ll know it’s working
- The question appears in the lesson plan before the lesson begins, with the misconception behind each wrong option noted beside it.
- Every student shows an answer at the same time, and sideways glances become less common within a week or two.
- The time from "show" to a decision is about a minute, and you can estimate the proportion that chose each option.
- Across a fortnight, you use both routes: most lessons continue, while at least one prompts you to pause and reteach or address a popular wrong answer.
Pitfalls & fixes
- Wrong options that only test. A randomly invented distractor tells you only that a student is wrong. Build each option from genuine mistakes found in last year's books, examiners' reports or your experience of teaching the topic.
- Taking one confident voice as the verdict. One volunteer's answer is still a sample of one. Keep the everyone-at-once routine even when you are confident that the class understands.
- Asking, then carrying on regardless. If the answers never affect what happens next, students notice and may stop thinking carefully before they respond. Decide how you will respond to each option while planning, and sometimes let the evidence change the course of the lesson.
- Right answers for wrong reasons. Students can choose the correct option through luck or exam technique. After everyone responds, ask two or three students to explain their choice; if flawed reasoning can lead to the right answer, rewrite the options.
Weigh it up
Why it’s worth it
- You identify a misconception in the lesson in which it develops, while there is still time to address it. The gap between error and correction can shrink from days to minutes.
- Every student commits to an answer, so the check also supports participation: thirty decisions rather than one volunteer's response.
- Writing the distractors requires you to anticipate the topic's common errors, which can sharpen the explanation you give before asking the question.
- Presenting the results treats wrong answers as information for the whole class to examine, helping mistakes become visible rather than remain hidden.
- The work is reusable. This year's question can be used next year; an existing hinge question can become a retrieval starter; and a department bank can grow quickly.
The costs
- Writing one takes time. A question you trust can take an hour, sometimes longer, and the ability to predict wrong answers develops over years. Department meetings provide a practical setting for this work.
- Multiple choice has clear limits. It shows which option students chose, but not their method, reasoning or partly formed ideas, and no set of distractors can cover every possible error.
- Reteaching uses time that you had planned for something else. If the scheme of work leaves no flexibility, you may discover that the class is struggling without having enough time to respond.
Adaptations
- Early years / lower primary: two options are enough. Present them as pictures or objects where possible, and let children answer by pointing or by holding up one finger or two.
- Secondary exam classes: past-paper multiple-choice items and examiners' reports provide a ready-made bank of distractors based on mistakes students genuinely make. Use these before writing your own.
- Post-16 / adult: showing a wrong answer publicly can feel exposing at any age. An anonymous digital poll or heads-down vote provides the same diagnosis without the public display.
- English and the humanities: when there is no single correct answer, base the hinge on judgement: offer four short claims about a text and ask, "Which claim does this paragraph best support?" The weaker options can still reflect habits you want to identify, such as retelling the plot.
Where this comes from
Dylan Wiliam codified the hinge question in Embedded Formative Assessment and his later writing on question design. It draws on the strong case he and Paul Black made in Inside the Black Box: learning improves when teaching responds to evidence of what students currently understand. The specific format, one planned multiple-choice check at a decision point, has not been trialled in isolation, so it is best understood as well-founded professional craft.
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