It is that dreaded time for students again: report card time! Let’s be honest – this is really truth time for students; a time when their parents get the first real overall glimpse into how their child is doing in the current school year. While most students are not fans of report card time, report cards are an important part of the educational process and Report card’s core purpose is intended to help students improve and grow.
Report Cards: Explained
A report card, sometimes called a progress report, is a document that outlines a student’s performance in school up to that point in the school year. While it does contain their current grade (depending on their grade and the school board, this can be presented as a letter grade (i.e. B+), as a percentage (i.e. 75%) or as a number level (i.e. Level 3)), there is other valuable information included in a report card.
For parents, this is your insight into your child’s learnings; it helps you see what they are learning, how they learn, their learning strengths and weaknesses, and areas that they need to improve.
What Am I Looking For?
Comments. This is one of the most important elements of a report card. Teachers take time to write detailed comments about the student’s performance in each subject and comment on their standing in relation to the curriculum objectives and goals. They can also make suggestions for future action for the student to take to help improve their grade in that subject. These comments are written with the parent audience in mind, so take your time to really understand and read them through.
Following the distribution of report cards, parent-teacher meetings are often held. This is a great time for parents to have a discussion with the teacher about their child. Report card comments are a great starting point for this discussion. Ask the teacher specific questions from their comments and discuss with them different alternatives to help your child further succeed.
In addition to grades and comments, report cards also highlight a child’s standing in relation to the class average; this is a great tool to see how your child ranks among their peers.
Post Report Card Action!
Once you have reviewed your child’s report card, and possibly discussed it with the teacher, it is important to make a plan for future action; think about things that can be done to help your child prosper in the next term, for the remainder of the school year, and for the future years ahead.
It can often be a struggle to find the educational support that you need as a parent to give your child. It is important to remember that every student learns different, therefore there is not one rule that works for all children. Some common suggestions made to help children succeed in school include: enforced homework/study time, getting a tutor, and using supplementary workbooks/material to provide extra practice for students.
Parents, think of a report card as a window into the classroom. This isn’t a view that you want to ignore – take a look in the window and take time to understand who your child is in the classroom and how you can best support them in their schooling.
If you are looking for supplementary workbook material, search Popular Book Company (Canada) Ltd. selection of workbooks. With over 150 different Canadian Curriculum based titles spanning subjects such as complete curriculum, math, science, English and French, Popular Book Company has a workbook for every child!
