Report Cards are About More than the Grade

A report card is not just about the letter grades for 3^rd and 4^th graders and above, or satisfactory or not for younger students. Parents need to consider a report card more as a progress report; a way to find out how your student is learning. Especially the initial 90-day report card in fall. This allows for a course corrections if issues are found, or for praise and keeping steady on track if learning goal posts have been met. The final report card in the marking period is the one that really counts. This initial grades are like mile markers on a trip; they are not the final destination

What Parents Need to Know from a Report Card & Actions Parents Can Take:

The most important thing to do is to stay calm. Yelling at a child or punishing them as a first step for poor grades is not the best strategy. Nor is simply heaping lots of praise for good grades. Take a measured approach, strategizing with your partner, when possible, and have a unified approach to how you both speak with your child about it.

Famous quote about teaching: Albert Einstein: “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”

What if your Child is Getting Good Grades Overall?

While praising a child is a part of the mix; parents can also learn from comments from the teacher. This can help you support your child in continuing the strategies they are already using to achieve good grades. Can you praise them for specific things?

For example:

• Are they participating in class?
• Doing well on tests or homework?
• Do they collaborate with other students?

More specific praise helps a child recognize what they are actually doing to make progress toward good grades so they can continue those good habits. Rather than general praise which can lead to a feeling that they are simply good at school, or that school is easy, and lead to slacking off. It’s the difference between “You are such a good student” and “You do such a good job on your homework, by your grades, it looks like that makes the tests easier too.”

What to Do Instead of Yelling, or Getting Frustrated, if your Kid is Struggling?

First breathe. This 90-day report card gives you time to help your child before the final grade later in the semester. Again – go to the comments on the report card and try to identify specific issues. Start with praising them for specific things they are doing well. Then look at the specific issues, can you spot patterns and issues that stand out? Are they struggling with homework or tests, or both. Is it all subjects or just one or two? 

What if your Child Struggling Overall?

If your child is struggling overall, it is time to reach out to the teacher, maybe even before the teacher conferences. It could signify that a learning difficulty is starting to have an effect. * It may also be time to sensitively talk with your child about what may be happening at school… it could be that there is bullying or some other social issue occurring that is distracting your child. Occasionally there are teacher-child dynamics at work, such as your child got off on a bad foot with the instructor, or that the child has not adapted to the new teacher’s teaching style or classroom dynamics.

*Experience from the trenches: A friend of mine said her child’s dyslexia wasn’t caught until 4^th grade, as the type of reading assignments changed and made it easier for teachers to spot. They were able to bring in strategies to help the student handle a specific issue. Catching it early is the important first step.

Sometimes children are ashamed or embarrassed about doing poorly in a subject, or if they are being bullied, or if the teacher doesn’t seem to like them. I was bullied in grade school, but I never told my parents. Staying calm and asking open-ended questions is key to getting your child to try to articulate what is going on from his/her perspective.

It could also be that your student might be struggling with the transitions to a new grade. When children enter third or fourth grade, there can be many changes and challenges. Grades may now be letter grades that focus more on specific learning goalposts, rather than the more general are children doing well, or struggling. If they just entered middle school, that can be a much larger transition. Once you can identify some of the issues, then you can develop strategies.

Is your Child Struggling in Just One Subject?

If your child is struggling with only one subject, this can be easier to handle. At your teacher-parent conference that usually happens after the report cards drop, ask the teacher for ideas about how to support your child in this subject. Are they struggling with the concepts, which might mean tutoring, or an afterschool program would be helpful. *  Or are they struggling with homework, or tests instead? The teacher may have some ideas based on his/her skill set.

 Also remember, while calm to ask your child to try to tell you about their experience trying to learn this subject. What exactly are they struggling with. These can be the easiest fixes. As the cause is likely less likely to be a major issue. Talk with your child and the teacher, it may be that they misunderstood a foundational lesson, that most of the class has moved beyond. Maybe they need to attend the teacher’s office hours and try to identify what bit of info didn’t stick with them. It could also be that a child who needs advanced math is bored in the normal classroom, they may need more challenging work either from the teacher, created by the parents, or from an afterschool academic program.

Experience from the trenches: I wrote another blog post about a chemical engineer who, in 3^rd grade, was having difficulty memorizing the times tables. She started to be afraid of math, thinking she was “bad at math.” Luckily someone in her life said something like, “Memorizing the times table is NOT the same thing as understanding math. It is a building block, but that’s all it is.” This advice helped her get over her fear and reframe her relationship with the subject. She went on to become a chemical engineer who uses math to invent things for our future.  

Are there any Patterns as far as Homework or Tests?

Sometimes a student who does well with homework but struggles with in-class participation can indicate one issue. While if they do poorly with homework, but ace tests, this can indicate a different issue. If you notice a pattern, this is definitely a time to speak with the teacher to identify how to help your child with whatever is showing up. In Math – sometimes math anxiety or dyscalculia and be a cause. See my blog post on these issue Or with reading and writing, Dyslexia could be an issue.

Sometimes refining the homework set up so that children are doing homework with adults around, and with their phones in a basket near you, can help minimize distractions, instead of studying in a bedroom with no supervision. Other students might need that quieter location

Seeking Outside Help from a Tutor or an Afterschool Enrichment Program may be the fix.

If your child is struggling with math or reading and writing, an after-school program like the ones ALOHA Mind Math run can be helpful in helping to get your student back on track. These teacher-led, small-classroom weekly sessions help children catch up and catch fire with math or the language arts. Often children thrive in a different, more focused learning environment. Look to places like an ALOHA Center near you. For children ages 3 to 12 years of age, ALOHA Mind Math’s programs can help. Classes are geared to meet your child’s needs at their age group and level of learning. Our teachers adapt to the high achiever, and to the student who is struggling with math. We also have reading and writing programs as well.

Written by Cathy Larkin, a freelance writer and social media coordinator, who has been a part of the ALOHA Mind Math team for several years.