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Khan for Educators (US)
Unit 4: Lesson 1
Encouraging student motivationCelebrate class progress with the LearnStorm Tracker (Beta)
Take motivation and engagement off your to-do list with Khan Academy’s new and improved LearnStorm tracker. The tracker is available year-round and captures a broad range of student activity.
Celebrate class progress with the LearnStorm tracker (Beta)
LearnStorm is our classroom engagement tool that drives skill mastery AND gets kids dancing — and it’s FREE for teachers and students! The LearnStorm tracker provides a fun visualization of the classes’ progress, showing students how their individual efforts contribute to class goals, without singling out any individual who is struggling.
How does the LearnStorm tracker work?
- The LearnStorm tracker tracks progress for all mastery-enabled courses where students level up skill mastery in Assignments or Course Mastery Goals.
- The ring level goes up each time the class achieves the number of mastery level ups to Familiar or higher as there are students in the class. For example, a class of 26 students will level up a ring each time they reach 26 mastery level ups to Familiar or higher, cumulatively as a class.
Accessing the LearnStorm tracker
From the Teacher dashboard, click on any of the classes on the left menu. Once on the class page, click on the LearnStorm tab on the left menu.
Note: If needed, learn how to create a class and add students to your class.
3 steps to getting started
Step 1: Create Assignments or assign Course Mastery Goals aligned to your curriculum. Determine what Khan Academy content would best support students as they build knowledge and mastery of each standard.
Step 2: Find a routine time (15-30 minutes will yield 1-2 mastery level ups per student) for students to work on assigned skills weekly. Here is an example of how to use LearnStorm for warm up, and here's an example of how to use LearnStorm for independent practice.
Step 3: Claim progress on your LearnStorm tracker. The more each student practices and levels up, the more progress is reflected in the tracker - unlocking new levels and moments of celebration.
Key things to know about the LearnStorm Tracker
- There is no limit to how many ring levels classes can earn on the tracker - the more students level up on skills the more ring levels they unlock!
- All work that’s assigned will count towards the tracker. If you’re finding this is leading your students to accumulate progress too quickly, here’s a hack: refreshing the browser while progress is growing skips to the final ring achieved.
- The ring movement and celebratory animation cannot be replayed so please be prepared to check it in front of students either in person or by sharing your screen remotely.
- This product is in Beta which means we’re releasing it early to classrooms to get their feedback!
Questions? Reach out to our support team.
Top implementation tips from teachers:
- Ring Reveal day is always special! As the teacher, you can project the computer screen to a large monitor in front of your class, and load the progress tracker with your students watching. This format is the one that makes it possible to watch students joyfully jumping up and down!
- Set short term goals for mastery levels up (end of class, period or week), and long term goals (can you reach level 15? 30? 100?). Be flexible, and adjust goals as needed to keep students feeling confident.
- If you’re looking for more ways to offload the “make class fun” part of the job, consider following the lead of Ms. Cox in Phoenix- who clicks “Claim Progress” with her class watching along weekly- and incentivizes her students with rewards like 10 minutes of free time at level 10, a piece of candy at level 15, and a class party at level 20!
- Other incentives teachers have successfully tested include spirit days, visits to a mystery box of prizes, and a favorite foods party
Want to join the conversation?
- I looked at the rings before class and then cleared them, not realizing it would clear students progress. Is there a way to get students progress back?(6 votes)
- Hi Cindy,
No, I'm afraid there's not a way to recover levels that have been cleared :(
The clear progress feature is designed to allow teachers to run their own "LearnStorm" events throughout the school year, even after the official event has ended, or for teachers who want to track levels per week, month, etc.
That being said, be careful not to clear your LearnStorm progress until after the official event has ended, as that will remove your progress towards any of the official LearnStorm prizes!(4 votes)
- If I have some kids working on 3rd grade, some on 4th, and some on other grades, do all contribute to the same ring?(5 votes)
- yes, if you assign all grades to them(3 votes)
- I looked at the rings before I showed my class. If I clear all rings will they come back when I check for progress?(3 votes)
- No, clearing all rings will permanently remove the LearnStorm progress for your class! This is meant to be used as a way for teachers to run their own "LearnStorm" events throughout the school year, even after the official event has ended.(1 vote)
- I have three classes and think I signed up for Learn Storm. I can't find the blue button that says sign up and I can view the progress of the rings. My issue is I want to communicate with the kids that a prize was won for UNICEF as the reach the required goals.
Is there any way I can see a verification that we are signed up?(3 votes)- You should be able to sign up via the Teacher Dashboard page (https://www.khanacademy.org/teacher/dashboard).
Once you have successfully registered, the LearnStorm banner will say "Check my progress" instead of "Register for LearnStorm".
If you're unable to see the banner on this page, please reach out to our technical support team via our Help Center: https://support.khanacademy.org/hc/en-us(1 vote)
- I'm using it with my family for our homeschool so we often have multiple rings. Is there any way to have it update multiple rings at once?(2 votes)
- Yes! You can skip the ring animation by refreshing the page after you have clicked the "Check Progress" button.(1 vote)
- Can LearnStorm be used for MAP Practice, Mappers?(2 votes)
- Yes! Progress made towards MAP-assigned practice will count towards the LearnStorm tracker.(1 vote)
- I saw an email about how to do multiple ring reveal at once instead of one at a time, but I can’t find it again.(2 votes)
- Hi Ronnie! You can skip the full animation by refreshing the page after clicking the "Check Progress" button.(1 vote)
- How do we receive prizes we earn from
Learn Storm? I did this last year and I do not think I got our prizes.(2 votes)- If you are eligible for one of the prizes or are selected in one of the random prize drawings, Khan Academy should reach out to you directly via the email address linked to your Khan Academy account.
You can view a complete list of the prizes and additional instructions here: https://www.khanacademy.org/khan-for-educators/k4e-us-demo/xb78db74671c953a7:implementing-khan-with-students/xb78db74671c953a7:encouraging-student-motivation/a/national-learnstorm-challenge(1 vote)
- Does the Learnstorm Tracker record student progress immediately? or is there a delay?(1 vote)
- The tracker should generally recognize new progress immediately when you click the New Progress button. However, if your class is unusually large, it could take up to 10 minutes for new progress to be recognized, just like the activity reports.(1 vote)
- My class LOVES the LearnStorm. I went to pull it up yesterday and it was not there anymore. Was it discontinued or is there something different I need to do to continue using it this year?(1 vote)
- hello Nancy.
don't worry, if you can't find LearnStorm, it's probably nothing bad.
LearnStorm has not been discontinued. It is in beta still, so Khan Academy will most likely keep working on it unless something bad did happen.
if you still cannot find it today, the only reason I can think of why your LearnStorm is missing is due to something with the settings for you, or your class.
if you found it and no longer have this problem, great job! :)(1 vote)