So you’re ready to implement a Levels-based curriculum in your equine lesson program … but how exactly will your students Level Up? Should they take formal tests to graduate to the next Level? If not, how else can you evaluate and celebrate their progress?
There isn’t a single right way to move your students through their Levels, and we’ve seen a lot of lesson programs put wonderfully creative spins on the process.
But this remains one of the biggest questions most instructors have about Learning Levels, so we thought we’d outline three different approaches for you – starting with the simplest!
Option #1: Check skills off as you go
When we first launched the Learning Levels in our own instruction program, we made a promise to our students: they would be able to earn Levels ribbons and progress through the curriculum simply by committing to regular lessons. No hidden fees, no extra time commitments, no strings attached.
This was important to us at the time because we knew some families struggled to add “extras” to their horseback riding schedule or budget, and we wanted our Levels to be accessible to everyone in the school.
The hope was that having structured goals would increase student retention — and oh boy, did it ever!
This approach meant that we would be routinely checking off skills as each student mastered them during regular lessons. When students completed their final Levels objective, they could receive a Learning Levels ribbon at the end of the lesson.
Alternatively, they could opt to wait for the next big community event at the barn, such as an in-house show or barn party, and we’d award Levels ribbons in front of an appreciative crowd.
This evaluation method allows students to progress at their own pace, and to review skills as many times as they need to achieve mastery.
It’s also easy enough to accomplish. After all, a curriculum simply reflects all the skills you think are important to teach — you’re going to be covering every single one of those objectives in regular lessons, anyway.
It does, however, require good recordkeeping habits. Dedicate some time up front for setting up a recordkeeping system that allows you to track student progress EFFICIENTLY. For example, our personal tracking system keeps all of our student Progress Sheets up-to-date using a simple five-minute check-in and check-out process, at the beginning and end of every lesson day.
Option #2: Level Up Camps and/or Clinics
Eventually, we realized that motivated students WOULD pay to accelerate their progress. We liked the idea of rewarding our most committed students with additional educational opportunities, and generating extra revenue while we were at it.
This is how our popular Level Up Camps and half-day Level Up Clinics came into existence. You can read all about their structure — and download sample schedules — in this blog post.
Both of these offerings operate under an important principle: teach before you test. We wanted to give our students an opportunity to check off skills and Level Up during the camp or clinic — and many did.
But the purpose was first and foremost to EDUCATE, so our students could still get a lot out of it – and enjoy the process — even if they didn’t move up a Level, or get many objectives checked off.
Level Up events do accomplish one important thing that can be tricky to squeeze into regular lessons: they give students a chance to see exactly where they are in their Levels, and set short-term goals. We began AND ended every clinic by letting students view their official records, discussing which objectives they thought would be easiest and hardest to accomplish and creating action plans.
Our Level Up format got to be so popular that we ended up offering 3 camps and 4-6 clinics per year. But juggling multiple Levels and objectives can be challenging, so we recommend starting small: schedule a single event and cap attendance so you don’t become overwhelmed. (This will also create Fear of Missing Out and inspire your other students to sign up next time!)
Option #3: Evaluation Day
In this method, you host an event with the sole purpose of testing students on Levels objectives. (Without actually calling it a test… more on this in a minute!*)
The assumption here is that students have already learned AND reviewed the material, and are ready to demonstrate their knowledge and get skills checked off.
In our opinion, you really don’t need to evaluate EVERY skill in a Level in a single event. Testing too many objectives in one session can make the experience rushed and stressful for everyone involved.
Evaluation days work best when your students have already been participating in Levels-based lessons for a while and are close to completing their current Level. This allows you to zero in on a few specific objectives and test those skills through fun challenges or games.
A few tips for making an evaluation day a success:
Tip #1 – Definitely charge for your time, UNLESS you are offering your Levels program as a perk of tuition/membership. Organizing and running these events can be intense at first, especially if you are doing it by yourself!
Tip #2 – Consider capping attendance or limiting your evaluation to a specific Level to keep your group size fairly small — at least for the first event or two while you figure out your process.
Tip #3 – Make study materials available to your students before and during the event. Yes, we said during! You could create a Review Table or Study Station with study guides, flashcards, and learning games where students can test themselves at the beginning of the event, or during a lunch break.
Tip #4 – For mounted evaluation, use patterns and/or obstacle courses. You can combine multiple objectives into a single course, and allow students to demonstrate skills individually without bogging down the lesson.
Tip #5 – For unmounted evaluation, the more you can do through hands-on activities or games, the better! Consider stations that your students can rotate through; this can also be quite efficient if you have assistants who can help you supervise stations.
Tip #6 – Be sure to leave plenty of time at the end of the event, prior to your award ceremony, to update paperwork, discuss each student’s progress and set goals. We usually tried to set aside 30 minutes for this purpose.
Tip #7 – Have a plan for students who aren’t able to Level Up during the event. For example, our friends at Therapeutic Riding and Off-Track Rehabilitation (TROTR.org) award silk roses as participation prizes for students who don’t earn ribbons.
*No matter what evaluation method you choose, there is one thing you absolutely MUST do: avoid calling it a test!
Many students find the idea of testing to be stressful and aversive. We have found that children of all ages can be turned off by anything that sounds or feels too much like school; teens in particular may ride horses because it is an antidote to high-pressure academic environments.
Give your evaluation day an upbeat name, using language like “Level Up,” “Power Up,” “Leg Up,” etc. Emphasize that it will be a fun and educational experience no matter the outcome.
And on that note…
It’s GREAT when students study ahead and come ready to check off Levels objectives. It’s probably also unrealistic to expect that all of your students will do so.
In our experience, in every group of Levels students, only a few motivated, self-directed students will do their own preparation to Level Up. The majority will participate passively — and that’s okay.
Learning about horses is supposed to be fun!
If the stress of test preparation takes all the fun away, your Levels will no longer inspire your students to progress.
So what can you do to inspire students to take action?
Remind students of WHY they want to Level Up: to unlock a privilege or a skill they really want to learn, to keep up with their peers, and most importantly, to become the kind of human that horses love!
Provide short-term incentives such as prizes for team challenges.
Provide study materials to EVERYONE, frequently, with hints that students who utilize them will make rapid progress. Share links to videos, Quizlets, infographics, and downloadable worksheets. Keep binders in your barn for study guides and horsey library materials. Create learning stations in your barn where students can practice tying a knot or buckling a halter on their own.
Encourage curiosity and a love of learning. Demonstrate all the ways YOU like to discover new information about horses.
Keep your expectations low and your enthusiasm high. Emphasize that everyone progresses at their own pace, but praise students who do put in extra effort.
The best way to learn what Level Up process works best for your program is to experiment, so don't worry if it takes you a little while to hit your stride
You can’t anticipate every challenge that will arise with student evaluation, but you can learn from experience and refine your process as you go. We promise that once you find a testing structure that works for you, your Learning Levels program will become a well-oiled machine.
Oh, and EVERY time your students Level Up, make sure to get LOTS of photos of their smiling faces and shiny new awards!
