Beyond preparing for lessons, teaching and everything else that a teacher must do, giving students constructive feedback is one of the most important tasks a teacher must complete. Communicating with students and parents in this way is an art. The way teachers write comments on students’ progress report should allow the parent and the child to reflect on why and how the student received specific comments and how they can improve.
A great way to think about writing student progress reports is to focus on the following:
- Academic Achievement – What a student can do
- Academic Progress – What a student is working on
- Academic Progress – What a student is putting a lot of effort into mastering
- Social and Emotional Growth – Any behavior that you notice – positive or ones that needs improvement.
- General Growth – Any other areas that a child is proud of that they’ve mentioned to you or that you’ve noticed in school.
These points should be a part of your introduction and in the comments under each of the subjects that you teach. Note that not all of these points may go under a subject area, such as General Growth, but most of them will.
If you’re asked to write a short progress report for your student, combine points one and two and keep the rest of the three points to one sentence each.
Using this method and the following steps will help you get fewer if any negative emails or phone calls from parents.
Actionable Steps:
#1. Stay Positive
If you want a parent to help you work with their child, you need to frame your report cards in a positive manner. Use the sandwich method whenever you need to write about what a student needs to work on in their progress report – academic or behavior. For example, first talk about a positive attribute such as if they’re empathetic toward others, then mention what needs improvement like if they’re constantly bossing other children around, and follow it up with another positive comment such as if they are always ready to start a lesson on time.
Recall that I mentioned that writing report card comments can be an art form. The following is what I was referring to. When you write a needs improvement comment, you need to write that in a positive manner as well. For example, the word, “bossy,” has a negative connotation to it. Instead, state something along the lines of, “he requires extra time to complete his assignment as he tends to focus more on helping other students prior to starting his own work.” This essentially means that he doesn’t complete his work because he spends more time telling everyone else what they should and shouldn’t do instead of minding his own business. If I wrote it this way though, it comes across as being aggressive and will turn a parent off.
When you finish writing your report card, it might be worth your while to get your admin or someone else to look over your report cards to ensure that you’re not writing from an emotional stance.
#2. Employ Specific Examples
If you’d like to give your students agency over their progress report, it’s important to give them a chance to reflect on what they feel that they’re doing well, what areas they need to improve in, and what they want to work on. To do this, many teachers, including myself, have been incorporating student self reflection into their progress reports. Not only will this develop a growth mindset but it will allow parents to gain insight into their child’s thought process.
The following is a method both, other teachers and I have used religiously in our classes for self reflections as it targets specific areas. You can use these prompts just before your reporting period or as an all year journaling exercise to help your students gauge their ongoing development. You can find the resource that best meets the needs of your class by either CLICKING HERE or on the image below.
#3. Stay Solutions Oriented
While it’s great to stay positive when using the sandwich method as mentioned in step one, and use student self reflections in step two, we have to go beyond just stating what’s happening, to helping parents see that there’s a way to help resolve any issues that were stated. You can do this by including a comment to each section where you have written about what the child needs to work on and at the very end of your students’ progress report if there’s room.
To phrase this section in a friendly manner, you can start your sentence with, “I’d like to see __(child’s name)______ work on ___(task)____ by doing _(solution)________.” To make it even more exciting, you can state, ” I’m excited to watch _(child’s name)_____ develop __(skill)____ by doing ___(solution)___.”
While you don’t need a solution for every single needs improvement comment, it’s good to have at least one solution per section so that parents know that you’re thinking about how to help their child.
Recap:
Let’s recap really quickly. Today, we looked at the following:
- The structure of report card comments.
- Quick ways to write teachers comments on students’ progress report: stay positive, employ specific examples, and stay solutions oriented.
Free Resources:
If you’d like additional resources for your classroom here are the three ways you can access them: 1) Free Resource Library; 2) At my store; or 3) Systematic Plan to Super Passionate.
Next Steps:
For calm down areas on a budget, for your students who have autism, CLICK HERE.
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I’ll see you next Friday at 5:30pm PST.
Until I see you next time, remember to create, experience & teach from the heart.
Take care,
Charlotte
