Plan one hinge question per lesson
One diagnostic question, placed at the point of no return, tells you whether the class is ready for what comes next.
Aug 12, 2026 · 1 min read
A hinge question sits at the moment your lesson forks: if they've got it, you move on; if they haven't, you reteach now. Wiliam (2011) describes it as the highest-leverage planning move in formative assessment, precisely because it's decided in advance, not improvised. One good hinge question beats ten "does that make sense?" checks. (It's also the idea behind the hinge-question-designer skill in Gareth Manning's open education-agent-skills library.)
In practice
- Write it while planning, and decide in advance what you'll do with each likely response. A hinge question without a planned fork is just a quiz item.
- Make every wrong option a named misconception, so the answer pattern tells you which repair to run, not just that one is needed.
- Collect answers from everyone at once (mini-whiteboards or fingers), and aim to read the room in under thirty seconds.
- The test of a good hinge: a student can get it right for the wrong reason only rarely.
Quick takeaway: plan the fork in the lesson, and the question that tells you which branch to take.