Active processing is all about turning on students’ brains while learning — it’s contrasted with passive learning, rote learning or shallow memorization.
Students should understand the learning goal and be able to track their progress towards that goal. Here are a couple examples:

(quality.cr.k12.ia.us)

(quality.cr.k12.ia.us)


(mshouser.com)

(mshouser.com)


They can even set their own goals in relation to the learning goals.
 
(mrsbunyi.com)

(mrsbunyi.com)


And make a plan to achieve their goals.
(kateandmaggie.com)

(kateandmaggie.com)


And here’s a great resource for assessing research skills. Turned on brains = smarter students!