Tips for Writing Reports EPT404 Before you start 1. Check that your class lists are accurate — have you spelt each student's name correctly? Familiarise yourself with the assessment policy. Do you know what assessment tasks are required and the timeline for each of these? Gather your evidence in advancel! Don't find one week before the reports are due that you have not marked books, given an assessment task or spelling test... Understand the reporting format used by your school. Know what information is required — is it a tick a box system? Do you have to grade the students ~ if so what is the normal procedure for this? What is the length of the comment space — how concise/verbose in your comments are you expected to be? Familiarise yourself with the school’s Assessment/Reporting Policy (if they have one!). Or just talk to more established staff members and find out any special information that may be helpful e.g. are the comments/names typed in by the clerical staff? Do you have to use a special coloured pen? What date goes on the report? Where do the reports go after you? Does anyone proof read them? Do you need to keep a copy of your comments? Make notes about your students as you teach them — a short comment made in your day book or on an anecdotal class list will often provide a useful “trigger” when trying to think of comments — “terrific project on...” “talkative”, “needs encouragement to pay attention’, “enjoys artistic work’, “good classroom participation” Ask if you can look at copies of old reports/ record cards. Read other teachers’ comments. This is a valuable experience in discovering what works and what doesn't. Use class time effectively - e.g. spotlighting students, release time, reading time, team teachingReport Time 1, Design a timetable for writing reports — they take time! Try to avoid the situation where you are rushed. If the reports are hand written, a good practice is to write the comment out in’ another book before committing it to record. It may be an idea to have a peer read your comments before you complete the reports. 2, Have a dictionary and/or thesaurus nearby. Brain drain can be a problem and spelling errors are not acceptable. 3. Think carefully about the student before you complete the report. All aspects of a report must be consistent. Ticking a behaviour box to indicate excellent classroom behaviour and then commenting that the student is not attentive and is talkative will only lead to confused parents. _ 4, Vary your comments. Students and/or parents sometimes compare reports and they do not want to see the same comment on all the reports. 5, Make it meaningful — if you do not mean it do not say it - double meanings are dangerous! Make the comments clear so that they cannot be misinterpreted. 6. Take care with your comments — you cannot be abusive or insulting. These reports will be read by many people and they can be produced as a legal document in court. Be careful! Try to finish on a positive/constructive comment. 7. Who are you writing the report to? Is it the parent or the student - decide at the beginning and maintain consistency in the comment. For example, “Jan has continued to maintain her conscientious attitude and is a pleasure to have in the classroom. Keep up the good work Jan!” 8. Try not to make a judgement — advice is OK e.g. “Jan is not capable of this work”. Instead you might prefer to say “Jan often experiences difficulty with the work and this has...” 9. Make the report worthwhile. Try to find something nice to say about every student = think of something that they enjoy, have done well, a personal quality or interest. Make the comment informative — outline problems/difficulties if there are any, or reasons for poorer than expected results. 10.Try to make comments constructive. Give students and parents something to work with: a special area that may be concentrated on, a new skill to develop, or a strategy to employ to achieve better results (e.g. sitting by themsolves or developing study skills). Reports on academic, well behaved students are often the most difficult to write. Think of methods that they may be able to use to further improve their results without detracting from their successes. Encourage the student where you can. Not everyone has the ability to gain excellent results. Our job is to give them the skills to learn and to encourage this lifelong leaming process = not just to give them bad news!