While in Band/Jazz Methods today, we were discussing assessment and report cards came up (naturally). I found out that report cards are all computerized now and you actually cannot write your own comments. You have to pick from a pre-made list of comments!
Now, I don't know about everyone else, but the personal comments are the most important part of report cards to me. I don't just want to know what grade I received, I want to know what the teacher thinks are my strengths, and what I can work on to be better. Choosing from a list of comments just does not perform the same function. It almost makes them meaningless. It is no longer a personal communication from teacher to student, but a required fill in the blank section.
I think it's great that report cards can be done on computers now, I can't imagine hand-writing 400 different report cards! But I do think in the case of pre-made comments, that the convenience of technology has deprived students and teachers of a valuable communication. Not to say that this is the fault of technology, it is simply being used in a way that is a meaningless time saver.
I really agree with this Kelsey. I was almost shocked when I heard about this today. My mom is a teacher though and I don't think that she uses these preset comments. As a parent I will look at the comments to see if a teacher is actually able to identify my child's strengths, weaknesses, and needs. If my child's teacher can't do that I won't really see them as a great teacher.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point Mike, I didn't think of it from a parent's perspective!
DeleteNot all schools/divisions have these types of reports. I think most have got past that old method of canned comments - my old school had them for maybe a year or two and then they were discarded and teachers could choose form some pre-made ones (made by themselves) or write their own (the usual practice). It seems to me that the new report templates (http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/assess/report_card.html) will also allow for individual teacher comments.
ReplyDeleteThat's good to hear. It probably depends on the division you're in as well.
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