Giving Report Card Comments

First quarter of this school year is through. Teachers are now confronted with grade computations, consolidation of grades, school forms, report cards and a lot more!

One of the great challenges of every class adviser, every time a grading period ends, is writing for the teacher's comment at the back of report card. Usually class advisers will spend a great deal of time and effort in thinking for the most appropriate and genuine comment that she can give for a particular student.

Some factors should be considered here: How was the student in his class or academic performance? Was the student behaving properly? Did the student commit a lot of absences?

In this post, I would like to give four tips on how to make this task easier without the guilty feeling of being inauthentic with your personal commentaries about your students. 

1. Base your comments from your Class Anecdotal Record. Whether or not it is a requirement of your school to come up with an anecdotal record for each of your student, writing anecdotal records is a good practice to start with that could give you a rich source for cumulative information about them, specific incidences, their instructional needs and their over-all development for a particular grading period. I know what you are thinking right now... (Hey I thought you're going to help us make it easier, but this is just another task to deal with!). Somehow, yes it will be an additional item in your to-do list, but believe me... be patient and you will reap what you sow.
2. Support your comment with faultless numeric data. It is very important that our feedback is grounded into correct records of class performance, attendance and scores. A comment based on an erring data is a shame on the part of a teacher, who should be responsible of keeping all the records and being accurate in assessing the students. It also adds to the authenticity of the comment if you can specifically cite or show an accurate record of the student's performance to the parents during the conference.
3. Create a Report Card Comment Database. You can work with this alone or with your colleagues. If you are newbie in this profession, it pays off to seek the help of you fellow teachers particularly the seasoned ones. Ask them what usual comments they will give for a bright student? How about for those struggling students or misbehaving students? After hearing and jotting those in your tickler, it's time for you to build your report card comment database. 

Using MS Excel or Access, type all those commentaries grouping them into a particular kind of student. Below are some teacher's commentaries and how they are grouped to fit in a particular kind of student:

For bright and active students: 

Aktibo sa talakayan ng klase. Ipagpatuloy ito.(Actively participates in class discussion. Keep it up.)

Isa sa mga nangungunang mag-aaral sa markahang ito. Binabati kita.(He is one of the top students for this grading period. Congratulations!) 

Nagpamalas ng husay sa lahat ng asignatura. Ipagpatuloy ito.(He shows academic excellence in all subjects. Keep it up.)

For students with remarkable behavior: 

Isang magalang ang mabait na bata. May pagpupunyagi sa kanyang pag-aaral.(He is a kind and polite child. He exhibits perseverance in his studies.) 

Naging isang mahusay na pinuno ng kaniyang klase. Isang modelong mag-aaral. Ipagpatuloy ito! (He shows leadership in his class, a model student. Keep it up!)

For struggling and/or misbehaving students: 

Iwasan ang madalas na pagliban sa klase. Dagdagan pa ang sipag at tiyaga upang mapaunlad ang mga mababang marka.(Avoid habitual absences. Persevere more to improve on the subjects with low grades.) 

Iwasan ang pakikipagusap sa katabi habang nagkaklase. Ituon ang atensyon sa pag-aaral upang mapaunlad ang mga mababang marka.  (Avoid trivial chatting with seatmates while having class discussion. Focus in your studies to improve your grades.)

4. Ask your class advisory to write a 'quarter-end reflection.' If it's really too late to come up of with those anecdotal records or commentary database, this could be your last resort, or perhaps, this could also be another rich source of all possible genuine comments you can give for a particular student. So, you can also try this along with those previous suggestions. You just need to give some guide questions to prompt them in writing this reflective journal. Ask them about their over-all learning experience during the grading period. Questions like 'what went right?' and 'what went wrong?' will give you a hint on what particular feedback that you can tell him to improve his studies and enjoy his learning experience.

Giving a report card comment for all your students might be a very tedious task, but remember that it plays an important role in building the excellence and character of our learners. Let us take this task seriously, your simple report card comment can make or break them.