Report cards – some tips and tricks from a busy teacher (including a free resource!)

This is the time of year when I need to start thinking about my third term report cards. I teach Grade 7, and I feel like the report cards that come in the third term, before those students graduate, are the most scrutinized by parents. So, I have some tips on how I do report cards that will help you. I include a free resource, which you can find linked at the bottom.

I have been a teacher since 2006, and since then, I’ve come up with a lot of different ways to make report cards less stressful. And they are less stressful, though definitely still very stressful. My reality is that I am doing report cards with distractions. I am distracted by my small people (I have two boys, 4 and 8). I am pulled by having to work on my masters degree. I am divided between report cards and all the many, many tasks that come with having a Grade 7 classroom all my own. So, while report cards are happening, I have a few ways to make them less terrifying.

So, here they are.

Blank ways to make report cards less stressful

1. Start early. I know this sounds obvious, but seriously, it’s a game-changer. I used to start 1 month ahead, but it wasn’t enough. Now I start 7 weeks ahead, and it’s probably about right. The start is primarily organizational and I’ll share below how I organize my work on these.
2. Create a bank of subject comments. I work in a public school on the West Coast of Canada, so this is based on my curriculum. Create a chart that has the descriptor of your course that applies to all students, then include the scoring rubric. We do not use letter grades at my school; we use a rubric that runs from “Beginning”, “Developing”, “Practicing”, and “Extending”. If you do, however, I think this should help you too, since it still makes a place to explain your grade reasoning.
3. Create grade comments. This feels time consuming, and it is, at the beginning. Now, though, I have a bank of comments that includes statements that describe a student who demonstrates that they are competent in an area, and comments that a student is still learning in an area. Then I provide feedback comments. Reality: most students have similar feedback that will assist them to grow in an area. Use this to make your job easier.
4. Make a bank of opening comments. This one is new for me, and it has been amazing. I’m not sure about the expectation for report cards in other schools, but I imagine you have to do a general introduction to each student. When I first started, this was a couple of paragraphs that I wrote from scratch every time and it took a Very. Long. Time. Now, I’m smarter. Every year, there are a few opening comments that are just really good. I’m proud of them. So I take the opening comment, remove all identifying criteria and substitute things like NAME and HE/SHE for the student I originally talked about. Then I use it again. I might need to be tweaked but it removes a lot of the extra work.
5. Finally, my favourite way to make report cards easier, and this changed everything for me. Have the students participate in the process. Create a self-evaluation that includes questions that you can report out directly from. Tell the kids what you’re doing, that they’re getting the opportunity to write part of their own report cards! They love this and they do take it seriously! Then I turn these statements into the second half of the opening comments. This saves me so much time.

There you have it, my best tricks for getting my report cards done in a reasonable amount of time. I am sure there are other tweaks I could make, and I will keep working to add these in. Also, I have to admit my report cards still take quite a long time, as I like to make sure each student feels represented. So, yes, they still take a long time. But no, they definitely do not take as long as they used to.

I use to this make this all happen.

A Self-Evaluation for Term 3: As above, this is the self-evaluation that I base the second half of my report card opening comments on. I then take the results and plonk it into a template that I have made based on it. Feel free to copy and past the template you see here, and I will link a free download of the evaluation below it.

Template

This year, STUDENT feels that they have balanced their life in school by IDEA, and kept HIM/HERSELF organized by IDEA. HIS/HER has improved HIS/HER work habits by IDEA. STUDENT’s favourite learning experience this year was EXPERIENCE because REASON. The most memorable part about Grade 7 for STUDENT was MEMORY. The academic skill that STUDENT feels HE/SHE has grown the most in is SKILL because REASON. The social skill that STUDENT feels HE/SHE has grown the most in is SKILL because REASON. STUDENT feels that HE/SHE has also improved on the life skill of SKILL because REASON. Congratulations, STUDENT, on an excellent year. All the best in Grade 8. Have a wonderful summer! 

Obviously, you could modify this by grade and the criteria you want to use, but discovering this method was life changing!

Head over to my Teacher Resources to find a link to download a self-evaluation form for your class, and a copy of my marks grid for Language Arts. Feel free to send me an email if you would like an editable version.