Do schools still give "report cards?"
When I first started homeschooling I was so excited about all the kids had done. At the end of the year I remembered that I received a "report card" at the end of the year. Students' grades were on them and teachers would usually comment about the the student's performance, personality, attitude, diligence, handwriting ability, standing-in-line skills. Okay, maybe I got a little carried away there.
I didn't want to grade my kindergartener on those things. I wanted him to know how much he accomplished that year (and how much I accomplished- remember, "It's all about me!").
It's been said the the great leader-orator Winston Churchill performed terribly in school and hated tests. "Tests" he said, always tried to determine how much students didn't know. He wanted someone to ask him what he did know about a subject. That was the true test.
Likewise, I wanted my students to know what they did, learned, accomplished. So, I started writing "Yearly Accomplishments."
What I do is list every subject they had. Then I may give the text they used and possibly their grade for the year (this has come in handy when I needed to refer back and couldn't remember everything). I add in some/all the books they read for that class or books I read to them. I often ask them what their favorite book and favorite subject was that year.
I keep it positive.
Sometimes it's tricky to put a positive spin on things, but that's my goal. I try to end the document with something special about each child. Something about his/her sports team or an extracurricular activity (ie: Eagle Scout award).
I put them in a Word document and send them in an email to myself so that I (hopefully) always have a virtual copy! I print them and put a nice card stock cover with a title on the front.
Usually we send a copy to close relatives.
For some brief examples read below:
When I first started homeschooling I was so excited about all the kids had done. At the end of the year I remembered that I received a "report card" at the end of the year. Students' grades were on them and teachers would usually comment about the the student's performance, personality, attitude, diligence, handwriting ability, standing-in-line skills. Okay, maybe I got a little carried away there.
I didn't want to grade my kindergartener on those things. I wanted him to know how much he accomplished that year (and how much I accomplished- remember, "It's all about me!").
It's been said the the great leader-orator Winston Churchill performed terribly in school and hated tests. "Tests" he said, always tried to determine how much students didn't know. He wanted someone to ask him what he did know about a subject. That was the true test.
Likewise, I wanted my students to know what they did, learned, accomplished. So, I started writing "Yearly Accomplishments."
What I do is list every subject they had. Then I may give the text they used and possibly their grade for the year (this has come in handy when I needed to refer back and couldn't remember everything). I add in some/all the books they read for that class or books I read to them. I often ask them what their favorite book and favorite subject was that year.
I keep it positive.
Sometimes it's tricky to put a positive spin on things, but that's my goal. I try to end the document with something special about each child. Something about his/her sports team or an extracurricular activity (ie: Eagle Scout award).
I put them in a Word document and send them in an email to myself so that I (hopefully) always have a virtual copy! I print them and put a nice card stock cover with a title on the front.
Usually we send a copy to close relatives.
Do you have an end of the school year tradition? What do you think about this? What do public schools do?
For some brief examples read below:
