Tips for writing personalized report card comments
I have recently been contacted by a number of teachers who were looking for guidance with writing report card comments to accompany their French curriculum expectations. This is not something that was ever taught when I attended Teacher’s College and came with research and experience.
When writing report card comments, I want to provide personalized comments that are useful to students, parents and future teachers and are specific to the curriculum expectations covered each term. Below is how I approach writing these comments, how I write comments for my 100+ students each term, and some other sites and blog posts where you can find more examples to get you started. I hope you find this information helpful!
Getting started
In planning my report card comments each term I first look at my long range plans and identify the learning goals that I covered that term. You will want to be sure to cover learning goals for each: writing, oral communication, listening and reading.
For example, one of the learning goals covered in term 1 for grade 6 Core French might be “I will be able to locate and give directions to landmarks in my neighbourhood in French.”
Then, I use the language from the achievement chart located in my provincial curriculum document to communicate the level of achievement attainted. Here is the language from the Ontario French as a Second Language Curriculum document.
Level 1- demonstrates limited understanding
Level 2- demonstrates some understanding
Level 3- demonstrates considerable understanding
Level 4 – demonstrates thorough understanding
Using this language and the learning goal, I write an appropriate personalized statement for each level, providing specific examples and referencing the unit of study. I create one large document with all of these statements. Here is an example:
Level 1- (Student) has demonstrated a limited understanding of how to give directions in French. He/She required frequent assistance to locate and give directions to landmarks in our neighbourhood in French.
Level 2 – (Students) has demonstrated some understanding of how to give directions in French. He/She required some assistance to locate and give directions to landmarks in our neighbourhood in French.
Level 3 - (Students) has demonstrated a considerable understanding of how to give directions in French. He/She is able to locate and give directions to landmarks in our neighbourhood in French.
Level 4- (Students) has demonstrated a thorough understanding of how to give directions in French. He/She is confidently able to locate and give directions to landmarks in our neighbourhood in French.
I repeat the above for each of the major learning goals that I have covered this term.
Each set of comments also requires an opening statement and a ‘next steps’ section. I pre-write these as well. Opening statements give a general overview of the student’s performance over the term and ‘next steps’ show how a student can continue to improve. Here are some examples:
Opening statement examples:
(see THESE report card examples from the Heart and Art Blog)
‘Next steps’ examples:
(Name) is encouraged to continue to participate fully in all class activities.
(Name) is encouraged to use newly acquired vocabulary in a variety of contexts.
(Name) is encouraged to become an active in-class participant.
(Name) is encouraged to participate more often in all class activities.
(Name) is encouraged to use visual and verbal cues to determine meaning.
(Name) is encouraged to demonstrate more enthusiasm towards learning a second language.
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| Get report card comments from The French Nook |
How I simplify writing report card comments
As mentioned above, I write all of the opening statements, achievement statements and next steps in one large document organized by achievement level. Then, as I look through all of my assessment data and anecdotal notes for each student, I copy and paste the applicable statements for that students into a new document, creating a customized paragraph of comments for each student. I then have these statements to refer to for further reporting periods.
If you're looking for more help, check out this
Other useful sites
I have found some other useful sites and Blog posts by FSL teachers that should help you develop your own comments and a system for reporting.
HERE is a guide for writing reports from the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board. Scroll to the end of the document for sample comments.
Heart and Art teaching blog has written 3 posts HERE with great samples and tips for report card writing.
Madelle Berry has posted sample report card comment on her site HERE.
Happy Report Card Writing!
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