Innovations at Dalat #15 - Teacher comments

Here are some of the problems with the process of writing "comments" from teachers on a report card. In no particular order.

1. Writing meaningful comments for 100 students is a nearly impossible task for even the most diligent teacher. Doing this twice every year over and over is exhausting.
2. Comments are written at the end of the quarter or semester when the teacher is already the most busy with grading.
3. There is little incentive for parents or students to read comments, further adding insult to the teacher's injury of having to write them.
4. If there is a suggestion for how a student could improve in the class, it is too late since the semester is already over.
5. The space is short, and the energy to write anything meaningful is low, knowing most of the comments will be ignored.
6. The student is not engaged in the process of evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. It is all top-down with little metacognition. 
7. Comments are often generic and meaningless. Teachers are actually reticent to say what needs to be said because...
8. Any negative comment can be seen as "out of the blue," leaving a student hurt. So positive "fluff" comments are the norm.
9. Anything written has the potential to be misconstrued since it is lacks context and nonverbal cues that typically give insight.
10. Traditional comments are written for two very different audiences.  The first is the next school the student will attend (as part of the permanent record), and the other is for the student/parents. It is nearly impossible to write to both audiences well. 

You can probably add to this list. For now, I think I have made the point that the current system is broken. 

Once we decided it was more important to write comments to the student to improve their learning and achievement (rather than writing an official record for applying to the next school), it freed us to do things differently to overcome most of these issues. We are now in the 4th year of our new system, and feedback from parents and teachers has been consistently positive. Here is a summary of what we are doing and why it works.

At the midpoint of our semester grading cycle (rather than at the very end), students are given time in each class to answer self-reflection questions about their learning. Typically, we ask three standard questions, and teachers have the opportunity to add their own question that is specific to their own class. Here is a look at the form students use. 

There is a lot to look out here so let me summarize. The first two tabs allow students to reflect on our school-wide goals (our Flagships). We have four, so to keep them from being overwhelmed, they do two each semester. Scrolling down there is a place for students to self-reflect in each class.  The final tab shows exemplars so the students have a model to follow.

Our tech guys have worked some magic in the background. The student reflections are compiled for teachers in an easy-to-access format (one document has a whole class of students). The teachers see what the student's reflections are and can affirm, correct, and add to the student's comments. This has helped make the comments far more meaningful and easier for teachers to have something valuable to say since they have a starting point. Often, the students are far more critical of themself than a teacher would be, so it gives a chance to encourage without being fake and to let parents and students know if there are real issues that need to be addressed.

Once all of the information is entered by teachers, the results from all the teachers are pulled back together in a single document for each student that is shared with the family. Parents are asked to read the student and teacher reflections and discuss them as a family. The final step is to have the parents fill out a form telling us they have read through the comments with their students. The parents can even write an encouraging note to their kid that is added to the document. The form lets the school know that parents have taken the time to reflect on both the students learning as well as the teacher's input. Yes, we incentivize this last step...after a grace period, students may not participate in any school activity until their parents complete the task and submit the form.

Once we decided that the point of our process was to improve learning, it freed us to make some big changes that have alleviated most of the problems listed above. It is never going to be fun writing for 100 students, but knowing the comments are hitting home and challenging students to do better takes much of the sting out.