Writing Report Cards

Our school is on a trimester system, so I write report cards three times a year.  When I first started teaching 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!