By: Greg Kottcamp, Assistant Principal D’Evelyn will be starting to send out weekly D & F Communications through the School Messenger system starting this coming Friday, October 29. The reason for this additional communication is to give parents another tool for progress monitoring. The School Messenger system does not allow us to tell parents that have more than one child at D’Evelyn, which child is struggling. Nor does it allow us to tell parents in which class/es the student is earning the D or F grade. Parents will need to log into Infinite Campus to determine which student and in which course the student is struggling. What can you learn from looking at a teacher’s gradebook? If you receive this message, we would encourage you to sit with your child and use Infinite Campus to see where he or she is struggling. Is your child earning a D or F because they have multiple missing or late assignments, or was it one major assignment that they struggled with. Or is your child struggling with tests and quizzes? Looking for patterns can be useful for helping your child develop strategies for improvement. Every teacher’s grade book is unique in how it is organized and it usually takes a moment to make sense of it. When looking at a gradebook in Infinite Campus you will want to not only look for missing or late work, but also how the gradebook is weighted. Most teachers use a weighted gradebook, which often gives more value to tests, quizzes, or essays. If a student is missing or did poorly on an assignment in a category of the gradebook that counts for a heavy portion of the grade, this will have a large impact on the total grade. If you see that your child is struggling with tests and quizzes you might work on test review skills. Sometimes teachers will make comments in the gradebook for particular assignments. Students don’t always do a good job of reading those comments and/or acting on them. Please encourage your student to read the comments, as this is feedback that can often improve his or her performance on the next task. Please keep in mind that the gradebook is showing all assignments that were turned in on time. If a student is absent, or turns in an assignment late, it will not show-up in the gradebook until the next time a teacher enters grades. Many teachers catch-up on grading during weekends, so be patient. Website tools: After looking over the gradebook, we would encourage parents and students to look over the teacher’s website. Most teachers are using Google Classroom, but some are also using google sites, or Schoology. Since students are the ones with access to their Google Classrooms, it would be useful to have them show you each teacher’s Google Classroom. The websites are where you can often find missing assignments, notes, or other support material that can help students to complete their work or to study for tests and quizzes. A-B-C Communication If after talking with your student and looking at the teacher’s website, you and your child still have questions - we like to use the A-B-C style of communication. Ideally, we would have the students email their teachers with questions, and “CC” parents on that email. Self-advocating can be a challenge for students but it is just as valuable as the other skills we teach. If your child is having trouble reaching out to a teacher through email, parents can work with their students to write the email together to model the process. In all communications, it is important to presume positive. We are all trying to work together to help our students be successful. Comments are closed.
|
Archives
April 2023
|