Badges are built into every Superstructure, helping teachers track student progress while encouraging students to strengthen their thinking as they work. Each structure includes a set of default badges designed to work across all subjects, with the option to add custom badges for more targeted feedback like evaluating specific thinking skills or content-specific knowledge.

Badges are awarded by Soop, our friendly AI helper, based on the grade level you select when you create your Superstructure. Students can see their progress in real-time through badge progress bars, and earn a built-in “win” when they demonstrate mastery.

Default Badges

These badges are automatically built into every Superstructure. The Badge Progress View shows students how close their entry is to earning a badge and is visible to themselves and to the teacher. Access it by selecting an entry then clicking Badges at the top.

Clarity: How an idea is communicated, from age-appropriate language (elementary level) to precise academic vocabulary (high school).
Justification: How an idea is supported by reasoning, indicated by "because" statements (elementary level) or layered, multi-point arguments (high school).
Insight: How an idea moves beyond correct answers to meaningful interpretations, indicated by "aha moments" (elementary level) or original analysis and complex connections (high school).
Relevance: How an idea's explanation shows why it belongs in the structure, indicated by obvious connections (elementary level) or sophisticated understanding of broader context (high school).
Evidence: How an idea is supplemented, from personal experience (elementary level) to stronger, more credible sources (high school).

Badge progress panel showing five categories with progress bars: clarity nearly halfway, justification less, insight less, relevance full with badge, and evidence low.

Badge Progress View

Custom Badges

Teachers can create their own Custom Badges that align with any concept, lesson, standard, or text. Think of them as a flexible assessment layer inside each Superstructure: teachers set the learning targets, define the performance criteria, and collect instant skill-level data that they can actually use. Thinking-Skill Badges highlight transferable cognitive skills, while Content Knowledge Badges focus on the particular content or concept students are studying.

To create badges, select Customize Badges from the ••• menu in the top right. The Customize Badges window will appear and you can create your Custom Badges. You can also use the green Autogenerate Badges button at the top right of the Customize Badges popup to have Soop generate custom badges for you. When you are happy with your custom badges, click Submit to apply the badges to your structure.
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Below, we've included some examples of Thinking Skills and Content Knowledge badges. Click on an image to open a text file of the badges, which you can easily copy-paste into the Customize Badges window.

Customize Badges panel showing editable badge names and descriptions for probability skill levels with a teal Autogenerate Badges button and a pink Submit button.

Customize Badges window

Sample Thinking Skills Badges

English: These sample badges spotlight the thinking skills strong readers use, like noticing details, making inferences, and connecting ideas, and can be applied across any text all year.
Social Studies: These badges highlight the thinking skills historians use, like sequencing events, identifying causes and effects, recognizing perspectives, and supporting ideas with evidence across time and place.
Science: These sample badges highlight the thinking skills scientists use, like observing, questioning, forming hypotheses, and analyzing evidence, and can be applied across labs and investigations.

Badges panel showing progress bars for five reading skills: Detail Observer, Context Connector, Abstract Thinker, Inference Maker, and Idea Synthesizer with descriptions of each skill.

English: Close Reading

Badge achievement levels for Chronological Thinker, Cause Chaser, Perspective Spotter, Evidence Builder, and Connection Maker with descriptions and progress bars.

Social Studies: Cause & Effect

User interface showing progress bars for earning badges in categories: Keen Observer, Curious Questioner, Hypothesizer, Awesome Analyzer, and Excellent Explainer with descriptions for each.

Science: Scientific Inquiry

Sample Content Knowledge Badges

English: These sample badges target the concepts or lenses of a lesson. In a study of conflict in Fahrenheit 451, they guide students in analyzing Montag’s struggles, his conflicts, and how tensions shape the plot and meaning.
Social Studies: These badges focus a specific social studies concept. In a Constitution unit, they guide students to analyze government structure, compromises, federalism, and evolving interpretations.
Science: These sample badges focus on key bits of knowledge within a scientific concept. In a photosynthesis lesson, they guide students to explain the roles of chlorophyll, energy capture, water splitting, carbon fixation, and sugar formation.

Badges showing progress in analyzing conflicts in Fahrenheit 451: Internal Explorer, External Investigator, Conflict Tracker, Resolution Analyst, and Cause & Effect Detective with descriptive progress bars.

English: Fahrenheit 451

Badge progress panel showing five badges: Framework Finder, Compromise Tracker, Federalism Mapper, Checks Decoder, and Change Agent with progress bars reflecting the user's closeness to earning each badge.

Social Studies: The Constitution

Badge progress display showing five science badges for photosynthesis: Chlorophyll Champion (explains chlorophyll's role in light capture), Water Splitter (explains splitting of water in light reactions), Energy Converter (explains conversion of light energy to chemical energy), Carbon Fixer (explains incorporation of carbon dioxide into organic molecules), and Sugar Builder (explains how glucose is formed).

Science: Photosynthesis

Badges Guide

Default Badges

Custom Badges

Sample Thinking Skills Badges

Sample Content Knowledge Badges