May is a high school English teacher who uses TeacherMade to help motivate her students by tracking their progress.

Track your students' progress with TeacherMade

I have been a high school English teacher for over 23 years and have taught different levels of English classes, from remedial reading and writing to honors and Advanced Placement. I have learned that students, no matter how much they might act like they don't care, actually care about their work. And they are more motivated to try if someone checks in on them and encourages them.

Use TeacherMade's progress percentage to monitor your students' progress during and assignment

A useful feature of TeacherMade is that when my students work on an assignment, I can monitor them. TeacherMade shows the students' progress percentage, so I can see if they are working steadily, rushing through the assignment, or not working on it at all. Having this information is helpful to me as a teacher. Depending on the nature of the assignment, I can use certain strategies to help my students refocus.

Help reduce student distractions by monitoring their progress with TeacherMade

Nowadays, students have many distractions. Unfortunately, some students are on their phones when they should be working. If a quick glance at my TeacherMade screen shows that a student has not opened an assignment or has not made much progress, I can stand next to the student. Sometimes, that is enough to get the student to put their phone away and get to work. No matter their age, students still need reminders and a nudge.

On the other hand, if a student worked through the assignment too quickly, I can see how much time was spent on it. If I felt that the student did not put in much effort, I can pull the student aside and discuss what happened. Maybe the student was overwhelmed and felt defeated, so they didn't even try and just wanted to quickly complete it. Depending on the reason, I can clarify any confusion and reset the assignment for the student.

Teachermade lets you track students' progress through an assignment

Now, there have been many times when a student had good intentions and started the assignment in class, didn't finish, meant to finish at home, but then forgot about it when they got home. With TeacherMade, I could not only see the progress percentage but also open the assignment to see what the student did. If an assignment is finished, and the student just forgot to submit it, I can submit the work for the student. If the student is not finished, I can remind them to complete the work and submit it when they are done.

Review a student's quality of work before it's been submitted

Another reason I like this feature is it removes assumptions that I might make about a student. For example, an assignment might be partially finished and unsubmitted. Based on that alone, I might make the error of assuming the student didn't want to do the work. But once I open the assignment, it might reveal detailed and high-quality work — it just was not finished. That has happened before. Understandably, students have other classes. Sometimes, it is a matter of them having too many other priorities and forgetting to complete the assignment for my class.

TeacherMade's auto-grading and comment feature make grading assignments fast and constructive

When I assign work to my students, I usually like to have an auto-graded section and a short written response section. When I grade the written response, TeacherMade's comment feature makes it convenient for me to give feedback to my students. When the students look at the work, they will see my comment at the top of the page, like on paper assignments. On some other platforms, the teacher's comment is not located in a conspicuous spot, so students sometimes don't see the teacher's comments. Whether the comment is constructive feedback or praise, it's nice for the student to see it.

TeacherMade is an excellent data tool to use during parent-teacher conferences

I can pull up a student's TeacherMade assignment during conferences and show it to the parents. Not only do parents see the work, but they can see how much time the student spent on the assignment. If needed, I can print the assignment for the parents. This saves me from having to justify a grade. The assignment, the student's efforts, the grade, and my comments are right there! Sometimes that's all the parents needed — a visual of how their child did and how much effort was put into it.

TeacherMade assignments help students take ownership of their work

Being able to see my students' progress on TeacherMade assignments helps me to help my students make better decisions about taking ownership of their work. It also lets me know what I need to reteach or what kind of conversations I need to have with certain students. Finally, if questioned or as a courtesy, I can show parents their child's work, grade, and even effort based on the time spent on the assignment.

TeacherMade is more than a digital worksheet creator. It is a powerful tool for tracking your students' progress on assignments.