Our school is on a trimester system, so I write report cards three times a year. When I first started teacher I wrote them all by hand. I had to painstakingly plan out what I would write first so I wouldn’t have to second guess and use gobs of white out. I am thankful for the computerized version, even when I have to edit and revise to make sure I don’t exceed the character limit.
One of the first things I was ever told was to start and end with a positive. For some students this is a piece of cake. For others this can provide a creative challenge. Over the years I have bookmarked and collected pages of resources with ideas for comments to share with families during grading periods.
Since I just finished writing my report cards, I thought this would be a great time to share a great resource with you – just in case you are ever at a loss for words.
Genia Connell wrote a great article for Scholastic. Click here to read it. She includes ideas for each of the following categories:
starting with a positive
personal attributes
behavior
work habits
social skills
communication
reading
writing
math
setting a goal for a student
closing comments
Here’s another from Mrs. Nielson over at Thriving 3rd Graders. Click the picture to grab the document:
I also found this link to a Teach Net post. It includes hundreds of ideas to get your started with your report card comments.
I hope some of these resources help you when you are writing your report cards. Now that I have finished mine I get to start prepping for conferences.
Happy Teaching!
Doesn't it feel good to have them done? When I had to do report cards, it was a challenge to come up with different things to say for each child. 🙂
Lori
Conversations in Literacy