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Graphic Organiser to Monitor Progress

A flexible flowchart where learners plan their approach, track what they actually do, and annotate changes along the way, making their thinking process visible.

Visual organisers
Graphic Organiser to Monitor Progress diagram

A graphic organiser to monitor progress diagram

What is graphic organiser to monitor progress?

  • Learners create a flowchart plan for their task using as many boxes as they need
  • As they work, they annotate their plan in a different colour to show changes
  • They add smiley faces, traffic lights or notes to evaluate each step
  • At the end, they review the completed organiser to see how their thinking evolved

How it works

A graphic organiser to monitor progress is essentially a flowchart that learners create before starting a task. Each box represents a step in their planned approach. As they work through the task, they annotate their plan in a different colour, showing where they stuck to the plan, where they changed course, and why.

The original plan is written in black. Amendments and reflections are added in red (or another colour). This simple colour distinction makes the thinking process visible. Learners can see at a glance where their original plan worked, where it needed changing, and what unexpected things happened along the way.

They can also evaluate their progress at each step by adding simple visual indicators: smiley faces, traffic light colours, or brief notes explaining what worked and what did not. This builds metacognition because learners are not just doing the task but monitoring and evaluating how they are doing it.

The completed organiser is a powerful artefact. It shows not just the end product but the process of getting there, including the mistakes, revisions and decisions. This is the first step towards more sophisticated metacognitive tools like the caterpillar and reflection triangles.

Classroom example

Year 5 learners in a Cardiff school are researching "Who was Darwin?" with a goal to present findings to the class in one minute. Each pair creates a flowchart plan: discuss what we know, find key words for an internet search, choose reliable websites, select key facts, write bullet points, practise presentation. As they work, they annotate in red: "Search didn't work well - looked for 'kid' or 'school' in the title and found better ones." Another pair writes: "Had to diamond rank our 10 facts down to 6 - we justified our top choices." The resulting organisers show rich evidence of self-regulated learning.

Curriculum for Wales connection

Graphic organisers to monitor progress develop both the "Develop" strand (monitoring progress through a task) and the "Reflect" strand (evaluating the process and outcomes). They support digital competence when used alongside research tasks and help learners become "ambitious, capable learners" who can manage their own learning.

Rainbow Curriculum's Thinking Tools lens lets you plan where self-monitoring tools appear across your curriculum, building independence and metacognition progressively.

Tips

  • Provide a template with empty boxes and arrows for younger learners. Older learners can create their own from scratch.
  • Use a consistent colour system across the school: black for the original plan, red for amendments.
  • A common pitfall: treating the organiser as a plan only. The monitoring and annotation during the task is where the real learning happens.
  • Photograph completed organisers. They make excellent evidence of thinking processes.
  • Start with short, simple tasks before using the tool for extended projects.

Source: Adapted from "How to develop thinking and assessment for learning in the classroom", Welsh Assembly Government, Guidance 044/2010.