REVIEWING A REPORT CARD WITH YOUR STUDENT



REVIEWING A REPORT CARD WITH YOUR STUDENT

If you have the opportunity to review your student’s report card, it’s best to do it with the student. This conversation can be a special opportunity to determine what type of support you can provide to your student. Unfortunately, it can also be a difficult conversation that can put stress on your relationship. This strategy is designed to help you make the most of the opportunity.

STEP 1:

Look for Successes. It’s easy to look right past a couple of A’s or B’s and focus on a C or a D. Keep your relationship positive and celebrate successes. Did your student pull a grade up? Did he maintain his grade in a class he was struggling with? Does he have a couple areas where he's really enjoying learning? Use these as opportunities to build your student’s confidence and his belief that he can succeed in school.

STEP 2:

How Does the Student Feel? Ask your student how he feels about his report card. Here are some sample discussion points and questions to consider using:

- Ask him to tell you what stands out to him, both positive and negative.

- How do the grades on this report card compare to previous cards?

- How does he feel about the grades he received?

- Does he think the report card is an accurate measure of what he's learned?

- How, if at all, does the report card reflect the amount of effort he put in to each class?

- What areas did he think he was doing better or worse in as compared with the grade he received? What are the reasons he feels that way?

- If there are teacher comments, how does the student feel about those?

STEP 3:

Share Your Feedback on Areas Your Students Needs to Improve. When discussing areas your student will need to improve in, be supportive when offering direct feedback. Consider these tips:

- "Sandwich" your concerns by first offering positive feedback, then addressing your concern, and then following up with one more item of positive feedback. You could say, “I know you put in a lot of effort last semester into studying math, but your grade still isn’t what you wanted it to be and what I believe it can be. Let's talk about that.” After sharing feedback and listening to your student, it may be appropriate to "close the sandwich" with a positive statement such as, “I know if you keep working hard, you’ll be able to improve.”

- Don’t avoid difficult subjects. You can definitely be honest without being hurtful. For instance, avoid saying anything like, “Well it’s no wonder you didn’t pass since you never did your work.” Instead, you might say, “When you don’t turn in assignments, it’s almost impossible to pass any class. You’re going to have to get your work in. What can you do to make that happen?”

STEP 4:

Seek Additional Information. Before setting goals and an action plan based on the report card, it will likely be important to seek additional information. Here are some examples of information you and/or your student may wish to seek:

From your student: If you received a low grade in a current class, is that grade significantly higher than what you had previously? What do you need to do better in that class? Are there things that you don’t understand from this report card that you need to know to improve on your next one? If so, what are those things?

From your student's teachers: If there were discrepancies between how the student thought he was doing and his grade, what can the teacher tell you about this? What brought down the student’s grades during the last reporting period: tests, projects, homework, class work, something else? What additional supports are available that your student is not taking advantage of?

STEP 5:

Set Goals. Finalize your conversation by using the current report card to set a baseline for future performance. Enlist the student’s help in setting goals for the next reporting period. What grades does he want to improve? Which ones will he be satisfied to maintain? Try to set specific goals that can be measured, such as improving a C- to a C+ or an 82% to an 85%. Also, talk about intermediate steps required to reach that goal, such as turning in all of your work or studying more than one night ahead for tests. Finally, seek some agreement on how you can be of the most assistance in supporting your student's efforts to reach these goals.

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