Everybody and their mother claims they have an "open door policy" or that "positive communication with families is the first thing I do every year!". That is good and well, and then crunch time approaches us by way of Progress Reports/Report Cards/Parent Teacher Conferences and our true colors start to show. Most often, people just get lazy and resort to what they have always done or whatever is easiest in hopes that it won't upset anybody. I would like to offer a few Do's and Don't s of Progress Reports/Parent Teacher Conferences that will serve as a guide to those who may be inclined to take the easy way out.
DO's
1. Individualize Communication- Any form of communication, especially a progress report, should be tailored to detail a child's strength and weaknesses in both the academic and social sectors. A letter grade or percentage mean jack squat as they provide no meaningful feedback. Instead, find a way to communicate a child's progress towards individual goals AND a plan of how you are going to continue their progress. Offering this type of feedback allows families to see what specific skills their child is working on and what they can possibly help support at home. I often times empower my students to reflect on their own progress and identify strengths/areas of growth and a plan of how they would like to achieve goals/overcome areas of growth to accompany progress reports. I am a big proponent of personal narratives that detail a child's growth and include a specific emphasis on what I would like to see form their child moving forward.
2. Continual Communication- I would hope that progress reports or heaven forbid Parent Teacher conferences aren't the first time you are having any meaningful communication with a student's family. Reaching out to families prior to the start of school and finding ways to establish AND maintain meaningful communication lines is essential to being able to have a productive conversation about a child's progress when conferences roll around. I have utilized social media to inform students' families on a regular basis, send personal notes home to each student's family sometime in the first few weeks and continue regularly throughout the year, and find ways to invite family members into our classroom. By empowering families to take an active role in their child's learning experience by way of volunteering, being a Mystery Reader etc. they will see firsthand their child's progress at school and form a meaningful relationship with you in the process.
3.Set Individual Goals for Students- One of the things that drives me absolutely nuts about the status quo is the idea that we establish generalized benchmarks at the end of each quarter and somehow think they should be applicable to every student. In the name of the status quo we put limits on the amount of growth a child can make or a topic they can choose to discover because "typically 4th graders don't do that" or "we save that for 2nd grade" or "We stop them here". Whose interests are we protecting by placing generalized yet asinine "goals" for students? We do this because it is easy for us, but we are doing a huge disservice to our students in the process. Every child is entitled and should be expected to make at least a year's worth of growth no matter where they enter your classroom at. If a 1st grade student enters your room performing at a 3rd grade level, then you should challenge that student to continue to make a year's worth of progress even if their learning makes it way into somebody else's "sacred" curriculum. Having clear and concise goals, without limits, on where you would like each individual student to progress will allow families to feel at ease knowing that you have a plan to meet their individual needs.
4. Back It Up!- Whatever marks, grades, report card/progress report you have provided, it is imperative that you are able to provide evidence as to why your student received a certain mark. Have students maintain portfolios of their work/progress is a valuable piece of evidences that families will enjoy seeing and allow students to take further ownership of their learning. Conferences can be less about teachers re-reading a child's report card and more about demonstrating to their family about why or how a child progressed to a certain point. Nothing on our report cards should be subjective- create rubrics/assessments that clearly formulate a child's ability in a given area.The more information we are able to provide, the less defensive everybody involved will feel.
5. Skip the Bullshit- We waste a ridiculous amount of everybody's time talking about, sharing information, and other meaningless things that serve no other purpose than to disengage families in the learning process. That cookie cutter arts and crafts project is cute and all, but is it really worth anybody's time to share at parent teacher conferences when my child's project looks exactly like the 22 others in their class? Do not waste anybody's time sharing information that has either been- communicated before such as re-reading the report card that was sent home 2 days prior or could have easily been shared in the daily communication between school and home. The following is a prime example of a waste of time for families of students who may be at or above grade level academically. Johnny enters 1st grade reading at a 2nd grade level, has mastered basic addition/subtraction, and is relatively confident speaking in front of his peers. Why would we waste this student or his family's time sharing their progress on 1st Grade standarized tests such as AIMSWeb results for letter Names/Sounds or the fact that they are supposed to be reading at a level they were able to easily read at in the middle of kindergarten. These families do not care what your generalized benchmarks are or are unaware that their child has progressed well beyond your lackluster benchmarks. What they would much rather talk about in the 15 minutes they have with you is how you are going to continually challenge their child?
DON'Ts
1. One Size Fits All- Every "great" teacher claims to live by the mantra that they "differentiate" to "meet the needs of every child", but then send home the same meaningless progress report every year either: summarizing what has been learned- so essentially a newsletter in addition to the one that already goes home every Friday or is an uninformative checklist that provides no real feedback to a child's progress. This comes across as lazy and disengaging to families who likely won't read the 4 paragraph essay you have prepared telling them something they likely already heard about at Curriculum Night or in your newsletter. If we are truly meeting the needs of each individual child, then why on earth would we send the exact same progress report home for students of varying ability levels? My above grade level students are not learning to count to 50, mastering beginning sight words,etc. so how big of a moron will I look like if I am sending home a "progress report" that states they are doing just that? The term "at or above____" gives families no real indication as to any specific skills a child should be working on and should be avoided altogether on any progress report.
2. Talk the Whole Time- Some of the most meaningful conferences I have had have stemmed from me checking my ego at the door and simply asking " What would you like to happen with your child's education? Is there anything you would like to see more of/less of? Do you have any questions?" By starting a conference like this, this empowers families to take the conference in the direction they want it to go. Yes, you may get caught off guard- but not if you are well-prepared with plenty of student evidence, but this serves as a much better use of everyone's time. Most often, the things you have prepared or would like to discuss will be brought up one way or another through a family's questions/comments , but is now done so in a way that engages your guest instantly.
3. Share the Same Garbage Every Year-
DO's
1. Individualize Communication- Any form of communication, especially a progress report, should be tailored to detail a child's strength and weaknesses in both the academic and social sectors. A letter grade or percentage mean jack squat as they provide no meaningful feedback. Instead, find a way to communicate a child's progress towards individual goals AND a plan of how you are going to continue their progress. Offering this type of feedback allows families to see what specific skills their child is working on and what they can possibly help support at home. I often times empower my students to reflect on their own progress and identify strengths/areas of growth and a plan of how they would like to achieve goals/overcome areas of growth to accompany progress reports. I am a big proponent of personal narratives that detail a child's growth and include a specific emphasis on what I would like to see form their child moving forward.
2. Continual Communication- I would hope that progress reports or heaven forbid Parent Teacher conferences aren't the first time you are having any meaningful communication with a student's family. Reaching out to families prior to the start of school and finding ways to establish AND maintain meaningful communication lines is essential to being able to have a productive conversation about a child's progress when conferences roll around. I have utilized social media to inform students' families on a regular basis, send personal notes home to each student's family sometime in the first few weeks and continue regularly throughout the year, and find ways to invite family members into our classroom. By empowering families to take an active role in their child's learning experience by way of volunteering, being a Mystery Reader etc. they will see firsthand their child's progress at school and form a meaningful relationship with you in the process.
3.Set Individual Goals for Students- One of the things that drives me absolutely nuts about the status quo is the idea that we establish generalized benchmarks at the end of each quarter and somehow think they should be applicable to every student. In the name of the status quo we put limits on the amount of growth a child can make or a topic they can choose to discover because "typically 4th graders don't do that" or "we save that for 2nd grade" or "We stop them here". Whose interests are we protecting by placing generalized yet asinine "goals" for students? We do this because it is easy for us, but we are doing a huge disservice to our students in the process. Every child is entitled and should be expected to make at least a year's worth of growth no matter where they enter your classroom at. If a 1st grade student enters your room performing at a 3rd grade level, then you should challenge that student to continue to make a year's worth of progress even if their learning makes it way into somebody else's "sacred" curriculum. Having clear and concise goals, without limits, on where you would like each individual student to progress will allow families to feel at ease knowing that you have a plan to meet their individual needs.
4. Back It Up!- Whatever marks, grades, report card/progress report you have provided, it is imperative that you are able to provide evidence as to why your student received a certain mark. Have students maintain portfolios of their work/progress is a valuable piece of evidences that families will enjoy seeing and allow students to take further ownership of their learning. Conferences can be less about teachers re-reading a child's report card and more about demonstrating to their family about why or how a child progressed to a certain point. Nothing on our report cards should be subjective- create rubrics/assessments that clearly formulate a child's ability in a given area.The more information we are able to provide, the less defensive everybody involved will feel.
5. Skip the Bullshit- We waste a ridiculous amount of everybody's time talking about, sharing information, and other meaningless things that serve no other purpose than to disengage families in the learning process. That cookie cutter arts and crafts project is cute and all, but is it really worth anybody's time to share at parent teacher conferences when my child's project looks exactly like the 22 others in their class? Do not waste anybody's time sharing information that has either been- communicated before such as re-reading the report card that was sent home 2 days prior or could have easily been shared in the daily communication between school and home. The following is a prime example of a waste of time for families of students who may be at or above grade level academically. Johnny enters 1st grade reading at a 2nd grade level, has mastered basic addition/subtraction, and is relatively confident speaking in front of his peers. Why would we waste this student or his family's time sharing their progress on 1st Grade standarized tests such as AIMSWeb results for letter Names/Sounds or the fact that they are supposed to be reading at a level they were able to easily read at in the middle of kindergarten. These families do not care what your generalized benchmarks are or are unaware that their child has progressed well beyond your lackluster benchmarks. What they would much rather talk about in the 15 minutes they have with you is how you are going to continually challenge their child?
DON'Ts
1. One Size Fits All- Every "great" teacher claims to live by the mantra that they "differentiate" to "meet the needs of every child", but then send home the same meaningless progress report every year either: summarizing what has been learned- so essentially a newsletter in addition to the one that already goes home every Friday or is an uninformative checklist that provides no real feedback to a child's progress. This comes across as lazy and disengaging to families who likely won't read the 4 paragraph essay you have prepared telling them something they likely already heard about at Curriculum Night or in your newsletter. If we are truly meeting the needs of each individual child, then why on earth would we send the exact same progress report home for students of varying ability levels? My above grade level students are not learning to count to 50, mastering beginning sight words,etc. so how big of a moron will I look like if I am sending home a "progress report" that states they are doing just that? The term "at or above____" gives families no real indication as to any specific skills a child should be working on and should be avoided altogether on any progress report.
2. Talk the Whole Time- Some of the most meaningful conferences I have had have stemmed from me checking my ego at the door and simply asking " What would you like to happen with your child's education? Is there anything you would like to see more of/less of? Do you have any questions?" By starting a conference like this, this empowers families to take the conference in the direction they want it to go. Yes, you may get caught off guard- but not if you are well-prepared with plenty of student evidence, but this serves as a much better use of everyone's time. Most often, the things you have prepared or would like to discuss will be brought up one way or another through a family's questions/comments , but is now done so in a way that engages your guest instantly.
3. Share the Same Garbage Every Year-