Report Cards

Report cards are coming home in backpacks this afternoon for many kids (if we have two households on file, report cards will be mailed to both households).  Please keep the report card, but sign and return the envelope.

Be aware that many areas of the report card are left blank each term.  We only grade the areas that are taught during that term.

Here is my "big picture" view of report cards.  Hopefully it will help as you try and make sense of your child's first report card...

5 thoughts about kindergarten report cards…

1)    My sense is that almost every kindergarten teacher would love to substitute conferences for report cards.  We are interested in who your student is, how they are learning and growing, and how they fit into the community that is our classroom.  This is very hard to fit into a set of marks and boxes.

2)    I didn’t write the language on the report card.  Parts of the report card are excellent for many students and truly reflect their accomplishments and our concerns.  Other parts are a mystery for parents and teachers alike.

3)    Along the lines of #2, I mentally divide the report card into four areas; comments, objective marks, subjective marks and “huh?” marks.  Objective categories like “recognizes and names all uppercase letters in random order” and subjective categories like “listens and follows directions” are very useful tools to see how your child is doing in class.  Kindergarten teachers sometimes gnash their teeth when trying to fairly and objectively score a five-year-old on a “huh?” item such as “Uses process skills in scientific inquiry.”  If a category is full of "edu-speak", take the grade with a grain of salt.

4)    The “big-picture” sections of the report card are the “characteristics of a successful learner” section and the comments.  To my mind, this is where we try to get at how your child approaches learning in kindergarten.  The individual subject areas are useful as a way to make sense of your child's academic progress.   If your child is clearly having difficulty in one or more specific area, please shoot me an email if we haven’t already spoken about these issues.  At the same time, kindergarten is too early to stress about whether your child has exceeding marks on everything.  Academic progress in early-childhood is much like shoe size; it comes on in fits and starts.

5)    Finally, feel free to contact me with any questions or worries about your child, whether from the report card, or from other aspects of kindergarten life.