Making Learning Visible: Progress Monitoring in Practice

Turn what you notice in the classroom into meaningful insights that help every student grow.

DR. JEN GOWERS
Instructional Specialist

Imagine for a moment a skill you have, something you’re good at: swimming, dancing, sketching, listening, problem solving, you name it. How did you become strong at this skill? Chances are good that someone showed you how to do it, you practiced it a whole lot, and over time, you became incrementally better at executing it. It is wonderful to be able to see progress as you build skills. And just like you, our students can feel the satisfaction of growing their skills — step by step, day by day — when we help them notice and celebrate their progress.

We know one powerful way to change our classrooms for the better is to shift our focus from what I taught to what students learned. In doing so, we can more naturally monitor progress and see how learning unfolds. One practical way to do this is by paying close attention to how students are growing: clarifying what success looks like, noticing the skills they’re developing, and using that information to guide the next steps in learning.

Helping students see their progress doesn’t have to be complicated — there are low-lift strategies that make it easy to notice skills developing, celebrate wins, and plan next steps.

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1. Turn your objective into success criteria

​Your daily learning target, goal or objective for your class can easily become a quick checklist for both you and your students. Consider a classic ELA objective: students will be able to use a strategy to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. At the start of the lesson, support students in unpacking and annotating this objective, and creating a simple checklist — on the board, or in their notebooks.

For example: How will I know I was successful? I can define an unfamiliar word, and I can use the strategy my teacher taught me today in order to define it.

Now both you and your students can quickly determine whether the lesson’s goal was met. Making the criteria for success visible in this way is a simple, powerful step in tracking growth.

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2. Determine mastery during independent work time

​During the portion of your lesson where students work on their skill, you likely circulate to offer support. You can make this time even more powerful by keeping track of who’s mastering the skill and who might need extra help. A simple table makes this easy:

As you circulate, take note of each student’s progress. For example, if we use the ELA objective from above, the independent work time is a chance for students to try the strategy. Noting who is successful, approaching mastery, or still struggling will help you plan groups and provide targeted support the next day, turning circulation into a clear, actionable snapshot of learning. (Dig deeper with The Progressive Scaffolding Framework, which offers a clear approach for providing just the right support at the right time!)

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3. Confer with students

​Conferencing is a powerful way to see growth in action, as noted by my colleague Dr. Cristina Compton in Conferences as Conversations: Meeting Students Where They Are. Cristina explores how to confer effectively, while here the emphasis is on what to track during those conversations. One approach is to create a list of the skills needed for excellence. Similar to the table above — but designed to be shared directly with students — this list might include, for example, making a claim, supporting it with relevant evidence, and analyzing the evidence to strengthen an argument. A simple table could look like this:

As you confer with young people about their work, make a note of what skill they are working to master, and share your notes and observations with them. This keeps you and your student aligned on next steps, helps guide skill development, and provides a meaningful record of growth over time. 

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​Shifting our focus from what we teach to what students learn allows classrooms to become student-centered spaces where growth is visible, celebrated, and actionable. When we pay attention to student progress in thoughtful, intentional ways — even in small moments — we send a powerful message: learning is a process, effort matters, and improvement is always possible. By fostering this awareness, we not only support skill development but also help students build confidence, take ownership of their learning, and see themselves as capable of continual growth.

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