Jordan, You're right, that is a form of pretesting. In a three week course, modifying the usual way a pretest is performed would seem to be necessary. Perhaps by asking questions as you do. Because of the diversity of ages, it might be an interesting activity to break the class up into say, three groups and have each group work for 10 minutes answering 3-4 questions collectively. Then, each group could present their answers to class. Then, any added emphasis or clarification you want to provide could follow each group's presentation. This whole thing wouldn't take more than thirty minutes, but potentially could achieve a lot for the class members, and give you some insight at what level the students are performing. Barry Westling