I am in the midst of writing reports for parents. They are each a narrative "covering" four areas of their child's year: personal and social development; language and literacy; mathematical thinking; and learning through inquiry.
We did these once before, in December. I know my students, and I can write to each of these subjects. This is the first school I have worked at that has reports, and this is not how I would choose to share information with parents.
How do you share information with parents? Conferences? Reports? Portfolio sharing?
p.s. These last few weeks will be quite hectic, so I apologize for the inevitable lapses in writing. Perhaps you'll just see lots of photographs!
This is always a struggle. We do portfolios. What would you rather be doing for assessments?
ReplyDeletei am in the midst of writing similar reports, and did as well in december. they are quite time-consuming, though i generally find myself satisfied with the finished product. we call our reports "updates" and they are anecdotal, descriptive reports on each child. we don't have any particular areas of development that we are required to speak to - instead, we write about each child's strengths and unique interests/personality. sometimes it's more about social/emotional development, sometimes more "intellectual" development - it depends on the child. the families in my school seem to really enjoy reading the updates.
ReplyDeletewe also do parent-teacher conferences twice a year. i've done portfolios in the past, but haven't really in the last two years. i think portfolios are a really nice way to show how a child has grown over the course of a year.
I like the idea of a portfolio sharing where the child and the parent come and look through the child's portfolio, and then the children show the parents around the classroom and they do different activities. I like writing about kids, but the way our reports are structured, there isn't much room for creativity and sharing of extra, special things. I'd love to include some conversation dialogue from a child in their report, also - they say wonderful things that really show their understanding and learning! I'd love to sit down to write an open ended "update", like you said, Emily.
ReplyDeleteWE have parent teacher conferences and everyday we send home a daily sheet of what we did that day! We encourage the parents to ask usu any questions they may have. Our main communication is conferences or just chit chatting at the door. At the end of the year we send home all art work and thank you notes
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