Comprehensive Guide to Progress Trackers

Guidance and Templates for Using Progress Trackers in a Modern Classroom

modernclassrooms.org Updated 1/2023

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Progress Trackers

In a self-paced classroom, every student should know exactly what they will work on each day. This helps students get right to work, fosters collaboration, and allows the educator to provide differentiated support.

To do this, we recommend that Modern Classroom educators create progress trackers that:

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• Indicate clearly what each student needs to do.
• Display student’s progress (not grades).
• Are easily updated – at least daily, if not more often.
• Facilitate collaboration between students in similar places.
• Use positive framing and reinforcement to celebrate effort and growth.

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Modern Classroom educators primarily track student progress in the following ways:

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• Whole-Group Trackers

Digital Trackers Game Boards

Physical Trackers Checklists

Staircase

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• Individual Progress Trackers

Unsure how to make copies of our resources? Watch this short screencast!

First Steps

I currently use a progress tracker…

✓ Look through the new examples and templates shared here and reflect and celebrate what is working well for you and your students!

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✓ Consider what changes to your progress tracker might benefit your students. You could even survey them to see their likes and dislikes!

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✓ Begin incorporating another type of progress tracker in conjunction with your current tracker. Only using an individual game board? Try adding a whole-group progress tracker as well!

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✓ Create a plan to inform caretakers and any support teachers about how the progress tracker is used in your Modern Classroom.

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✓ Look through these “plug and play” templates that we know work. Choose one that seems to fit your class the best, copy it, and go!

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✓ As you create your progress tracker, consider the following questions:

• How many lessons will I include on my tracker so that I don’t overwhelm learners?
• How will students access and use the progress tracker I create?
• Where will the progress tracker be located and how will I reference it in daily routines?

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✓ Remember, you will likely make changes as you begin using it and that’s okay - in fact, we recommend seeing what works and improving what doesn’t!

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You may be excited or nervous about adding a progress tracker to your Modern Classroom. No matter how you are feeling we have a few ideas on how to be most successful in using a progress tracker. See below for where you might begin.

I haven’t implemented a progress tracker yet…

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Whole-Group Progress Trackers

Our teachers use whole-group progress trackers to encourage hard work, grit, and collaboration. Using a tracker effectively is all about framing. If students see it as a reflection of their work ethic and a tool to inspire collaboration, they’ll be motivated to work harder and to learn from peers who have the knowledge they need.

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Most of our educators have received little pushback on their use of whole-group trackers in their classroom. Any issues generally stemmed from a misunderstanding of the tracker’s purpose and what it reveals.

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Key points to address if misunderstandings arise:

1. Teachers do not display grades or ability, just progress through a specific unit.

2. Students always have the opportunity to catch up.

3. The tracker should not reflect ability level but instead effort. If it reflects ability level, then differentiation needs to be addressed.

4. It can be a very powerful tool for collaboration. Students can identify peers who have mastered skills and can support them without having to go straight to the teachers.

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Alternatives to listing students, by name, on a public pacing tracker:

Whether you use a whole-group tracker is completely your choice. We have a number of teachers who only use individual trackers. Alternatively, you can take some pressure off by using student initials, emojis, or nicknames. This can make the tracker feel more friendly to students as well as parents.

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The following slides showcase some whole-group progress trackers created by Modern Classroom educators. Feel free to make a copy of any template and make it your own!

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1st Grade: Whole-Group Tracker

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This tracker has color-coded lesson classification and various emojis indicating group work, on pace, ahead of pace, and catching up (see speaker note comments for more details). The circle is also hyperlinked directly to the lesson on the educators LMS, making navigation easy for young learners.

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Make your own copy of our Google Slide Template or Microsoft Powerpoint Template.

3rd Grade: Whole-Group Tracker

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This tracker has an emphasis on collaboration, with students color coding their name based on what part of the lesson they are working on. The educator can also hyperlink the lesson name at the top to their LMS for easy navigation.

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Make your own copy of our Google Slide Template or Microsoft Powerpoint Template.

5th Grade: Whole-Group Tracker

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Add color and bitmojis to your tracker! This tracker encourages collaboration by allowing students to see others working on the same lesson. Consider using color to align with your lesson classification.

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Make your own copy of our Google Slide Template or Microsoft Powerpoint Template.

Middle School Science: Whole-Group Tracker

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This straightforward template can help encourage group work by allowing students to see others that they can ask for help or collaborate with.

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Make your own copy of our Google Slide Template or Microsoft Powerpoint Template.

AP Seminar: Whole-Group Tracker

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This tracker has built-in student recognition. We love the “three stars of the day” motivational strategy in this tracker.

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Make your own copy of our Google Slide Template or Microsoft Powerpoint Template.

12th Grade Math: Whole-Group Tracker

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This tracker has a colorful box to remind educators to shoutout students who work hard and help their peers. The reminder space is also helpful to keep learners on track and provide motivation!

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Make your own copy of our Google Slide Template or Microsoft Powerpoint Template.

Middle School: Whole-Group Tracker (Physical)

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In this middle school classroom, student names are written on magnets that students can move when they progress to the next lesson. Student names are moved to the “revision” section of the board to indicate they are revising a lesson. The educator also includes a section that tells students what lesson is “on pace.”

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Materials needed: Magnetic board, magnets.

High School Science: Whole-Group Tracker (Physical)

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This physical whole-group tracker allows students and teachers to quickly see where students are on different assignments. This educator has a red strip for each class period and a clothespin for each learner.

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Materials needed: Thick ribbon or strips of paper, clothespins, labels.

Whole-Group Trackers and FERPA

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The Modern Classrooms team has reviewed the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) along with our legal counsel. We believe that a whole-group progress tracker which does not display grades is permissible, as it is not an official record maintained by the school and does not display student grades.

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With that said, we would advise any teacher who is concerned about FERPA to consider using alternatives (including using emojis rather than student names or using individual progress trackers). The practice of whole-group trackers itself has not, to our knowledge, ever been ruled on definitely, so our view is that teachers can use it if they are comfortable with it, but should absolutely consider alternatives where they are not.

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We advise teachers who opt to use a whole-group progress tracker to frame it positively with their students, emphasizing that this is a tool to encourage hard work, clarity, and collaboration. We remind teachers that the whole-group tracker never displays grades or scores; it communicates progress through a specific unit. Teacher trackers are a great place to house grades and scores.

Individual Progress Trackers

Individual progress trackers allow students to chart their own progress through a lesson, a series of lessons, or a complete unit.

Many educators choose to use game boards or checklists for these trackers, while others use a staircase visual. These trackers can be kept digital or printed for students to keep with their materials.

These trackers may not be as accurate as your own teacher tracker or gradebook, but they do give student some ownership as they progress through a learning sequence. Often educators will use these in combination with a whole-group progress tracker. If you are only using an individual tracker, consider creating a plan to check in with students and review their progress trackers.

The following slides showcase some individual progress trackers created by Modern Classroom educators. Feel free to make a copy of any template and make it your own!

Kindergarten: Individual Tracker Game Board

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This tracker serves as a roadmap through an entire unit, with each lesson visually broken down by activity. Each block indicates a different activity, with the final activity in each sequence being the Mastery Check.

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Make your own copy of our Google Slide Template or Microsoft Powerpoint Template.

4th Grade: Individual Tracker Game Board

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This elementary game board includes check-ins with the teacher as well as lessons that are color-coded based on classification.

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Make your own copy of our Google Slide Template or Microsoft Powerpoint Template.

5th Grade: Individual Tracker Game Board

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This tracker serves as a roadmap through an entire unit, with each lesson visually broken down by activity.

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Make your own copy of our Google Slide Template or Microsoft Powerpoint Template.

6th Grade: Individual Tracker Game Board

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This is a simple game board to guide students through a unit or a project. Lessons are classified based on Must Do and Should Do and include Whole Class activities as well.

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Make your own copy of our Google Slide Template or Microsoft Powerpoint Template.

High School Accounting: Individual Tracker Game Board

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This educator has combined a student-facing tracker with a public pacing tracker, allowing students to track their own progress but also find opportunities for collaboration. Students also set goals each day at the bottom of the tracker.

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Make your own copy of our Google Doc Template or Microsoft Word Template.

High School Science: Individual Tracker Game Board

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This is a student game board that has each lesson broken down into three or four tasks. Consider only showing students one section at a time to reduce cognitive load and help learners feel successful. Find an explanation of this tool here.

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Make your own copy of our Google Slide Template or Microsoft Powerpoint Template.

4th Grade: Individual Student Checklist

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This simple checklist lays out assignments for students, giving a space for a due date and teacher signature. Some educators use the signature space to mark completion of the mastery check.

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Make your own copy of our Google Slide Template or Microsoft Powerpoint Template.

5th Grade: Individual Student Checklist

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This teacher’s personalized Google Slide deck is worth checking out! Each lesson on this student checklist has its own slide, linking students to relevant instructional materials. Teachers and students can leave each other notes. Take a closer look at the exemplar here.

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Make your own copy of our Google Slide Template (and here) or our Microsoft Powerpoint Template.

9th Grade: Individual Student Checklist

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This educator makes a simple, student-friendly checklist for every unit she teaches. This tracker encourages students to set goals for each lesson and for the unit assessment. Notice that all students take the unit assessment on the same date.

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Make your own copy of our Google Slide Template or Microsoft Powerpoint Template.

11th Grade: Individual Student Checklist

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This educator includes three lessons in a unit in her progress tracker, showing students each part of the lesson. Breaking down lessons like this helps students stay on track throughout a longer lesson. You could also mark some pieces of the lesson as Must Do, Should Do, or Aspire to Do.

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Make your own copy of our Google Slide Template or Microsoft Powerpoint Template.

AP Seminar: Individual Student Checklist

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This tracker makes each step of a lesson - and lesson progression - very clear for students. Note that for many students, seeing this many lessons to start may be overwhelming. Consider having fewer lessons on each page to make it more digestible for learners.

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Make your own copy of our Google Slide Template or Microsoft Powerpoint Template.

5th Grade: Individual Student Staircase

modernclassrooms.org

This staircase tracker presents each step of the unit clearly, including lesson classification. Consider linking directly to the lesson your LMS for each “step” of the staircase.

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Make your own copy of our Google Slide Template or Microsoft Powerpoint Template.

Teacher

Trackers

The progress trackers that have been shared so far focus on providing students a way to track their own progress.

Some educators also find it important to easily see what each student is working on to help them know who they need to meet with first in a small group. For this, educators create their own teacher progress tracker.

On this slide is an example from Modern Classroom Educator Nora Barnett Lieberman’s sixth grade class.

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From Nora: ‘These trackers are stapled together and they live on a clipboard that I carry with me all class. At the end of each day, I update my public tracker based on my teacher-facing tracker.

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My Teacher-Facing Progress Tracker Routines:

When grading, if work is all correct → Mark score

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Any mistake → Revision occurs → Small dot goes next to score

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Work has been revised → Check off the dot and rewrite score

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I cross out Should Do lessons for students that are behind if they don’t need to complete them.”

Learn more about Nora’s classroom here!

Wavio Pulse — All-in-One App!

Wavio Pulse is an innovative online app for educators that simplifies tracking and mastery assessment.

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• Automatically generates individual and whole-group trackers

• Consolidates mastery data in one convenient platform

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Available for free for educators through the Modern Classrooms Project!

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Auto-Updating Tracker: Whole-Group, Individual, and Teacher Tracker

In this one-stop-shop tracker, you enter students’ progress - and this tracker does the rest.

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It automatically calculates each student’s pace and next lesson.

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It generates:

• student groups
• checklists
• game boards,
• and summary statistics!

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All with the magic of a few simple formulas.🤓

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Get your copy of this Tracker

Templates

The following slides contain templates for all the progress trackers shared in this presentation.

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We provide these templates as starting points in your journey to build a Modern Classroom. We suggest you use these in a way that is meaningful for you.

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Please feel free to make a copy of these templates and spend time personalizing any ideas you borrow for your own implementation.

[Lesson #]

[Lesson #]

[Lesson #]

[Lesson #]

[Lesson #]

[Lesson #]

[Lesson #]

[Unit Name & Number]

Today’s Superstars!

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Try out Pixton for free to create student avatars!

Move these icons to the corresponding lessons.

[Student Name]

Remember to fill your piece to reflect what part of the lesson you’re up to!

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Lesson: white

Practice: purple

Mastery Check: blue

Revision: aqua

PACE

[Lesson Name/Number]

Who can I work with today?

[Lesson Name/Number]

[Lesson Name/Number]

[Lesson Name/Number]

[Lesson Name/Number]

{Student Name}

{Student Name}

{Lesson}

{Lesson}

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{Lesson}

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{Lesson}

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{Lesson}

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{Lesson}

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{Lesson}

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Need to revise:

[Student Name]

[Student Name]

Working on level zero:

[Student Name]

Need to revise:

[Student Name]

Working on level 1:

[Student Name]

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Need to revise:

[Student Name]

Working on level 2:

[Student Name]

Need to revise:

[Student Name]

Working on level 3:

[Student Name]

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Need to revise:

[Student Name]

Working on level 4:

[Student Name]

Need to revise:

[Student Name]

Working on level 5:

[Student Name]

Need to revise:

[Student Name]

Working on level 4:

[Student Name]

Must Do

Must Do

Should Do

Must Do

Aspire to Do

Should Do

Must Do

[Class Name]

[Period/Unit]

[Class Name]

[Period/Unit]

Schedule

[This is a great place to put soft/hard deadlines for students!]

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On Pace: [Lesson Name] Name in Orange = Revise!

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Reminders!

[This is a great place to put reminders for work habits that you are looking for and encouragement for collaboration. Consider adding a section for shout-outs as well!]

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[Class Name]

[Period/Unit]

Key

Behind: [Lesson #]

On-pace: [Lesson #]

Accelerated: [Lesson #]

Revise!!

Three Stars of the Day:

Reminders:

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[This is a great place to put reminders for work habits that you are looking for and encouragement for collaboration.]

[Class Name]

[Period/Unit]

Target Lesson: [#]

[Date]

Ahead of pace!

On pace

Revising

Behind pace

SHOUT OUTS!

[Shoutout students for their hard work, progress, collaboration or any other behavior you want to encourage!]

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REMINDERS

[This is a great place to put reminders for work habits that you are looking for and encouragement for collaboration.]

[Class Name]: [Period/Unit]

Unit Assessment

[Class Name]: [Period/Unit]

Important Dates:

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Be done with Lesson 1: ______�

Be done with Lesson 3: ______�

Be done with Lesson 5: ______�

End of unit date: ______

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Start

Lesson Zero

📄

Lesson Notes

Lesson Zero

💻

EdPuzzle Score:

Lesson Zero

🎫

Mastery Check Score:

Lesson 1

📄

Lesson Notes

Lesson 1

💻

EdPuzzle Score:

Lesson 1

🎫

Mastery Check Score:

Unit Assessment

[Class Name]: [Period/Unit]

Lesson 2

📄

Lesson Notes

Lesson 2

💻

EdPuzzle Score:

Lesson 2

🎫

Mastery Check Score:

Lesson 2

✏️

Practice Page

Lesson 3

📄

Lesson Notes

Lesson 3

💻

EdPuzzle Score:

Lesson 3

🎫

Mastery Check Score:

Lesson 3

✏️

Practice Page

Lesson 4

📄

Lesson Notes

Lesson 4

💻

EdPuzzle Score:

Lesson 4

🎫

Mastery Check Score:

Lesson 4

✏️

Practice Page

Lesson 5

📄

Lesson Notes

Lesson 5

💻

EdPuzzle Score:

Lesson 5

🎫

Mastery Check Score:

Lesson 5

✏️

Practice Page

Lesson 6

📄

Lesson Notes

Lesson 6

💻

EdPuzzle Score:

Lesson 6

🎫

Mastery Check Score:

Lesson 6

✏️

Practice Page

All done!

Lesson 1:

[Lesson Name]

Lesson 2:

[Lesson Name]

[Whole Group Activity]

Lesson 4:

[Lesson Name]

Lesson 6:

[Lesson Name]

Lesson 5:

[Lesson Name]

Start

Lesson 3:

[Lesson Name]

[Whole Group Activity]

Must Do

Should Do

Whole Class Activity

Lesson 7:

[Lesson Name]

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Lesson 8:

[Lesson Name]

Unit Assessment

[Class Name]: [Period/Unit]

[Class Name]: [Period/Unit]

Checkpoint #1 – [Lesson Title]

Checkpoint #2 – [Lesson Title]

Checkpoint #3 – [Lesson Title]

Checkpoint #4 – [Lesson Title]

{Unit Name & Number}

[Unit Name]:

Recommended Pacing Guide

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[Unit Title]

[Name here’s] Progress Tracker!

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Name: _________________________ Date: __________________

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[Class Name]: [Period/Unit] Checklist

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Potential goals for a lesson:

[Work with students to create a list of potential goals they might choose for a lesson]

{Unit Name} Progress Tracker

{Lesson Name/Number}

{Lesson Name/Number}

Name:

____________

Unit End Date:

____________

• {Lesson Activity}
• {Lesson Activity}
• {Lesson Activity}
• {Lesson Activity}
• {Lesson Activity}
• {Lesson Activity}

Completion Goal Date:

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____________

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• {Lesson Activity}
• {Lesson Activity}
• {Lesson Activity}
• {Lesson Activity}
• {Lesson Activity}
• {Lesson Activity}

Completion Goal Date:

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____________

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{Lesson Name/Number}

• {Lesson Activity}
• {Lesson Activity}
• {Lesson Activity}
• {Lesson Activity}
• {Lesson Activity}
• {Lesson Activity}

Completion Goal Date:

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____________

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Use this tracker to monitor your own progress. In the box, put a check when you are completed and move onto the next assignment. When finished with each lesson, please check in with [Teacher Name] before moving on.

Questions? or Notes

[Class Name]: [Period/Unit]

[Class Name]: [Period/Unit]

Lesson 1 - [Learning objective or lesson summary. Consider including links!]

Lesson 2 - [Learning objective or lesson summary. Consider including links!]

Lesson 2.5 - [Learning objective or lesson summary. Consider including links!]

Lesson 3 - [Learning objective or lesson summary. Consider including links!]

Lesson 4 - [Learning objective or lesson summary. Consider including links!]

[Essential Question]

Unit Assessment - [Learning objective or lesson summary. Consider including links!]

[Reminder for student success here!]

All Done!

MUST DO

SHOULD DO

START