Card

Always, Sometimes, or Never True

Students evaluate statements based on how often they think they are true. This strategy is especially useful in revealing whether students overgeneralize or undergeneralize a given concept.

Always, Sometimes, or Never True

Summary

Students examine a set of statements, reflect on their individual interpretations of each, and decide if they are always, sometimes, or never true. This strategy can be used in a variety of ways—for example, at the beginning of a learning cycle to elicit prior knowledge, or at the end of a unit to check for understanding after students have had opportunities to learn about a topic.

Procedure

Have students read a set of statements that focus on the given concept or topic. For each one, ask students to choose the answer that describes how often they think the statement is true: always, sometimes, or never.
After each statement, have students write a short justification of their response.
Optionally, you may have students share out their responses or participate in a whole-class discussion. If used at the end of a lesson, students can instead complete the activity by turning in their responses as an assessment.

Keeley, P., & Tobey, C. R. (2011). Get the facts. In Mathematics Formative Assessment: 75 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning (pp. 57-59). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, SAGE.