As we begin November, many parents will be receiving information about their children. The information in the upcoming report cards range from general to specific; thus, it would be beneficial for parents to use these reports to learn about their children and how to help them during the rest of this academic year.
Elementary Progress Report Cards
Elementary students will be receiving a progress report card, and while they do not show a grade value for each subject, there is a plethora of information that their teachers put in for each subject.
The most important sections for parents to read are the sections with the heading “Strengths/Next Steps for Improvement”. Each subject area should have comments and a clear outline of what each student must work on to improve their success in that subject.
Parents should look for phrases that begin with the student “is encouraged to”, “needs to”, or “demonstrates difficulty”. This does not mean that your child does not meet the required criteria, rather, these are the next steps that your child is expected to take to better succeed in their understanding of that subject.
The strengths that are written should allow you to identify the foundations of your child’s knowledge and understanding. It will help to understand that each child learns differently and their strengths may show a pattern of the type of teaching that they respond well to.
High School Midterm Report Cards
During this month high school students will be taking home midterm report cards with them. These reports are important for parents and students to better understand the direction that the student must take to reach their goals in each course. Although many students may know what they don’t understand in the course or what they have difficulty in, they may not know of a way to improve. Teachers will be writing in remarks on what they have noticed about the student into the report sections labelled, “Strengths/Next Steps for Improvement”.
These sections describe the skills that the student has shown an understanding in as well as the type of learning area that they struggle in. It is important to also check the section called, “Learning Skills and Work Habits”. Although teachers do not give a mark in these sections, the student and parents are informed about what needs ‘improvement’, what areas are ‘satisfactory’, ‘good’, or ‘excellent’.
This section may also indicate whether a student can achieve a higher mark by simply organizing their notes, handing in assignments on time, or taking initiative to ask their teacher questions. Although it is not always necessary to use these skills in the course, it may reflect the struggles they will have in their future academic career and workplace.
For students in grade 12 this report card may seem quite stressful to receive as university and college application deadlines fast approach. It should be emphasized to students and parents that these midterm marks represent only 30% of the course work, and is more indicative of what needs to be improved for a better mark. This means that there is a lot of room for improvement, or a lot of work to do to keep your mark up. These marks will NOT get you early acceptance into a university or college (early acceptance is in fact based on grade 11 marks).
All in all, it is a time for change or a time to remind yourself and your child to keep on working hard towards their goal. If you have any questions related to this topic, feel free to submit a question below:
