Tsering, an English language learner from Tibet, uses an interactive gradebook application to document her learning progress. The application allows her to set goals, reflect daily, and showcase completed projects. It contains narrative logs, media artifacts, and feedback conversations. As Tsering masters standards and completes projects, she earns badges and her learning story is visualized through interactive charts and infographics. At the end of the year, her progress is printed into a bound book to share with family and demonstrate her growth.

1. Learning Quest:
An Interactive Gradebook Application
Concept Presentation by
Justin Blinder and Dara Ross

2. KEY QUESTIONS:
How can students document and visualize
their learning progress over time?
How can we assist students with diverse
educational backgrounds, learning styles, and
cultures develop relational and collaborative
approaches to learning, reflection, goal setting and
personal growth?
How can teachers and students work together
to set goals and chart progress?

3. Instead of logging on to view a one-sided, teacher-
directed spreadsheet filled with numbers...

4. ...what if students had the opportunity to
become the main character in the story of their
own learning quest?

5. Tsering is a 14 year old, 9th grade
English Language Learner (ELL)
from Tibet.

6. Tsering spent the previous two years before getting to
New York City in a refugee camp in India after hiking over
the Himalaya mountains with her family in order to
escape religious persecution in Tibet.

7. Everyday in English class, Tsering uses a variety of features
to update an interactive, narrative log to help both
Tsering and her teacher collaborate, document and view
her progress over time.

8. In English class, Tsering
is studying “Vampires.”
Her class is
inquiry-based.

9. Tsering’s teacher acts as a
facilitator helping, guiding and
providing resources.

10. Tsering and her teacher have
conversations about what learning
goals, objectives and skills Tsering
would like to target during this
project.

11. Tsering has decided that she is most
interested in learning and comparing
different vampire legends around the
world.

12. Tsering has usually picked writing essays or poetry
for previous projects, so during this project she
decides that she would like to focus on her
speaking and listening skills.
SL.9-10.6. Adapt speech to a
variety of contexts and tasks,
demonstrating command of
formal English when indicated
or appropriate.

13. there She decides that she
W hy are
s o many
dif ferent wants to do research and
v ampire also interview her
legends
arou nd the classmates about the
world? different vampire legends
in their countries.

14. She decides that turning her background
research and her interviews into a short
documentary using iMovie is a good way to
practice her speaking and listening skills.

15. Everyday at the end of class, Tsering fills out a daily,
interactive, virtual exit slip to help chart her
movement through the project and towards her
learning goals and objectives.

16. In the virtual exit slip Tsering can choose a
variety of media to create an expressive artifact
of her daily progress.

17. Tsering can choose to write the answer to
questions, record a short audio or video clip in
English or in her native language, take a picture of
her facial expression using the iSight camera or ask
a question.

18. Tsering’s teacher can drop-in and comment on
Tsering’s daily reflections creating a documented,
open-ended dialogue between teacher and student.

19. When Tsering has completed her short
documentary, she uploads it to the application for
final review, comments and feedback from her
teachers and her peers.

20. She earns a special
vampire badge to show
that she has achieved
her learning goals and
objectives.

21. Tsering’s vampire badge will be linked together
with a customized rubric tied to the Common
Core Standards and embedded with the iMovie
that she made.
SL.9-10.5. Make
Click! strategic use of
digital media
(e.g., textual,
graphical, audio,
visual, and
interactive
elements) in
presentations to
enhance
understanding of
findings,
reasoning, and
evidence and to
add interest.

22. Each star in Tsering’s galaxy represents a
project that Tsering has successfully completed
or a Common Core Standard that Tsering has
mastered.

23. Evidence of mastery and rubrics are linked inside
the star. Clicking the star will let the viewer see any
relevant content related to the project.

24. Clicking or zooming inside the yellow path will
reveal the playback of Tsering’s exit slips and the
conversations between Tsering, her teacher and
even between her classmates or her group
members that she worked with on her project.

25. As the school year progresses and Tsering
completes many successful projects, she is
amazed at how much she is learning.
ve it!
t belie t
I can’ I firs
W hen
ame, I didn’t
c
spea k any
nglish . Now
E I have
look at all
done!

26. She frequently reviews and
“playbacks” her progress.
I remember when I
worked on this project.
Look at what I made.
Click!
Click!

27. She also has many options for visualizing the story
of her learning through interactive infographics such
as word clouds and emotion charts.

28. These charts and infographics will help Tsering,
her family and her teacher visualize Tsering’s
progress as well as track trends in Tsering’s
learning.
ow! Look
W
how much
more
roduc tive I
p
am in the
mo rning!

29. At the end of the year Tsering’s daily progress
and final projects can be printed out and hand
bound into a physical book to share with
friends and family.
Wow ! Look
at Ts ering’s
lish w ork!
Eng

30. She can print and bind multiple book of her
progress, complete with QR codes linking to her
goals and to her final projects.

31. These books can be saved and shared with family
members near and far. All they will need is to add
a free QR code reader to their smart phones to
view Tsering’s progress and her work.

32. We believe that this learning experience will be
different from other approaches to grading and
assessment because unlike traditional grade books,
the experience is interactive, collaborative and
highly learner driven.