Apps and Tools / Seesaw · April 27, 2020

Motivational Reward and Progress Charts in Seesaw

How many of your students are not keeping up with their Seesaw assignments? How many parents actually know which assignments their student still needs to turn in? Since Seesaw isn’t designed to provide that feedback, I needed a way to let both students and parents know which assignments were complete. I also wanted it to motivate students. I decided to add a reward chart to each student’s journal page and update it with digital stickers to show their progress.

Add a Reward Chart as a Student Post

Create a new Post Student work and choose Drawing. Once in the drawing template, insert your reward sheet (tap camera, upload, then choose your photo). I’ve made some of my charts available in this Google Folder if you’d like to start with those.

Once your reward sheet is uploaded, use the text button to type assignment names. You can type all the assignments for the day, the week, the month, etc. You decide! Leave space under the assignment names for the stickers.  Then, tap the three dots to duplicate the page. Edit the text for the next day/week/ etc. assignment names. You can duplicate as many times as you want.

A sample tracking chart for students in Seesaw.

Once it’s ready, tap the green check to save your template. Then, select the student you want to send this to, then tap the green check. 

Do not select more than one as this will not allow you to individually edit the charts!

Reopen the reward chart you just sent and tap the three dots. Select Copy and Edit and tap the green check. Then choose the next student you want to send this to. Repeat for all remaining students. This is a little time consuming, but it is worth it!

Updating the Reward Chart with Stickers

Getting the charts set up shared is time consuming, but here comes the payoff. When you have a student who has submitted an activity and you are ready to approve it, you will put a sticker on the chart.  

Open the reward chart on the student’s journal page. Tap the three dots and select Edit.  

Insert the sticker (tap camera, upload, then choose your photo -or- drag from your desktop (tip: Dragging from your desktop is much faster if you are on a laptop or PC!) 

Resize the sticker, if needed, and place it under the completed assignment title. Then, tap the three dots to lock. Tap the green check to save. This adds the sticker and prevents the student from changing the chart.

Repeat all steps for all other charts.

Pinning the Chart to the Top of the Journal Feed

It is easy to keep up the chart to the top of the journal feed. Doing this helps students stay on top of their weekly assignments without needing to scroll each time they open the app.

To pin a post to the top, simply tap the kabob (three dots) and choose pin post. If you wish to unpin the post, simply repeat the procedure and select unpin. Remember, since each chart is posted to individual students journals, you’ll need to do this for each student in the class. Note: Only one post can be pinned at time in a Seesaw class.

What if I Want Students to track their Own Progress?

If you are looking for a way for students to manage and update their own assignment progress, you can do it by following the same steps listed above. Add a chart as a post to each student, but give them a menu bank to choose from for their stickers. 

A student-managed progress chart template.

It can be as simple as a check mark or shape added, or as complex as you providing stickers for them to duplicate and drag. By posting it to their journal instead of assigning as an activity, no approval is needed and both the student and parents can see the updates. You will need to go in and edit the date to bump it up to the top of the page. Please note that you will need to enable item editing if you want students to be able to edit a chart.

If you’re an ECS teacher, you can access these materials in Seesaw in the district library under social emotional learning. If you’re not an ECS teacher, you can open my templates with these links to get started:


Have you come up with other methods for helping students schedule their work? Leave us some comments with more ideas below!