My next report cards are coming up – what about yours? Music teachers often teach hundreds of students, which means hundreds of comments – here’s my system to get through them with as little strife as possible!
Step 1 – Pick your categories
A month or so before I write my report cards, I run through what I’ve done with all of my classes and choose which 2 aspects I am going to comment on for each class. This gives me a chance to pick out anything that might need an extra assessment or two, either for the whole class or for a few students, and plan accordingly. For example – I’m in my recorder unit with my grade 4s, so this report card I’ll comment on their skill on recorder and their ability to self-reflect and improve their performance. I also comment on if a student is an active participant in music class on every report card.
Step 2 – Write 3 comments for each
I write 3 comments for each of the 2 aspects I choose to comment on – one positive, one neutral, and one negative. For example, if I am talking about a student’s progress on recorder, these could be my comments:
Positive: *student name* is off to a strong start on recorder and can play with good tone and technique.
Neutral: *student name* is developing their ability to play recorder with good tone and technique.
Negative: *student name* struggles to play the recorder with good tone and techinique.
As you can see, these usually take the form of saying the student’s understanding or skill is strong for the positive comment, that it is developing for the neutral comment, and that they are struggling for the negative comment.
I also give each of these comments a CODE – I number 1 through 9 for each grade, with the grade number in front of each comment – so for example, grade 4 participation comments would be 41, 42, 43, these recorder comments would be 44, 45, 46, and the comments on self-reflection would be 47, 48, and 49. This is what makes the next step extra speedy!
Step 3 – Codes on the class list
I prefer to do this step with a hard copy class list, although you can easily do it digitally if you prefer. Print out a class list, and write the 3 comment codes for each student beside their name. The reason I prefer to do this with a paper copy is so I can have the gradebook on my screen while I write in the codes, and then later have the paper list in front of me while I input the comments on the computer.
An example class list might look like this:
An extra step I take is condensing all 3 positive comments into one big comment that I just write as “AG” (for All Good). Happily, most of my students get this comment which makes my job even quicker! This is also the step where you might put a star between students you want to write a custom comment for (perhaps those who have IEPs or students who just recently joined your school).
Step 4 – Plug in student names
I am lucky that the report card writing software my school uses can automatically plug in student names. After pasting in all my comments I just click a student name, click the 3 codes that I need to use, and their report comment is complete! If you do not use software that does this, you can also use find and replace in Word or Google Docs to quickly change out student names and pronouns, then copy and paste into your report card system.
Using these steps is the only way I’m able to complete my 400 report cards in a timely manner each term – and make sure you save your comments from year to year to make your job even easier next year! Happy report card writing!
