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IS SIMPLY SENDING HOME GRADED PAPERS EACH WEEK ENOUGH? MAYBE SO! IF...
-you are a beginning teacher and have enough you're trying to take on: if you're feeling overwhelmed, you may want to read the basic tips that directly follow and then skip the rest of this page!
-most of your students' parents don't read English well, work multiple jobs, or for other reasons rarely look at papers sent home and just want the bottom line periodically on how their kids are doing
-your school system has complex requirements for sending frequent progress reports to parents and there are near-constant updates already
-you routinely call parents and/or have face-to-face discussions with them
BASIC TIPS FOR SENDING GRADED PAPERS HOME
Just sending graded papers home regularly is FINE, and definitely all that most parents will expect. Here are some variations on simplifying this process:
 
- If you want to send papers home daily (or as you grade them) along with fliers and notices, use a 'mailbox system' for passing out graded papers. When you have papers to be passed out, put the stack in one of two extra mailbox slots labeled ‘Mailbox Helper 1’ and ‘Mailbox Helper 2’ (often I have multiple fliers to go home so I give some fliers to one helper and different fliers to the other helper) and have those students distribute the papers. For more details on how to do this efficiently, see the Passing Out Papers section of The Paper Trap page.
- If you want to send papers home weekly, choose one day and try to always send things home on that day so that parents know what to expect. Many teachers have Friday Folders and send everything for the week; others do Monday Folders so that papers can be graded over the weekend (yuck- hope you aren't doing too much of that! See the Grading page for help). One year I gave a personal deadline of Monday and got everything ready by that afternoon, but I sent folders home on Tuesdays to give myself some wiggle room in case I got behind or took a long weekend. You can choose whichever day works best for you, but try to be consistent.
- Have a special folder for sending home papers so that parents and kids instantly recognize it. If you laminate them, cheap 10 cent folders can be used for the whole year for most kids- even manilla envelopes or plain file folders will do.
- If you want to be sure that parents have seen the folder contents, have a page glued or stapled to the inside for them to sign. The simplest way is to type up the dates for the entire quarter and have a blank spot for parents to sign each week. Set a date for parents to have the folder signed and returned (maybe a week from the day you send it home) and have rewards/consequences prepared for students who do/don't return their folders signed. There will inevitably be some kids who never manage to get this done, so plan now how you will respond. Having a visual reminder for kids (see photo below) usually helps. There are tips for collecting, passing out, and tracking these types of forms and folders on the Paper Trap page.
- If you'd like to inform parents of social skills/ behavior, or classwork/homework completion for the past week, send home a simple form like the ones on the Daily/Weekly Reports page. It is your decision whether you would like parents to sign and return it.
- If you like to keep portfolios or just documentation to support the grades you give students on their report cards (both are an excellent idea, by the way), staple all of the graded work together and have a paper on the front for the parent to sign. The parent then returns the ENTIRE packet, rather than throwing the work away, which you keep filed in case you need to reference it. This also prevents sneaky children from throwing out poor grades and only showing the 'good papers' to mom and dad.
AN EASY WAY TO COMBINE A CLASS NEWSLETTER AND AN ACADEMIC/BEHAVIORAL REPORT
Experienced educators should definitely consider having a regular method for updating parents on how children are doing academically. If your school system has already overloaded you with paper trails, this may not be needed. But if you'd like documentation of how you routinely provide student progress information to parents, this is a great way to do it. I used this system for two years and NEVER had a parent so much as hint that they didn't see a low grade coming on a report card or had no clue their child was not completing classwork.
This is a pretty simple form which I complete bi-weekly (reasons for that are below) but you could do weekly if you prefer. I keep a basic template on my hard drive and type in updates to tell parents what we've been learning about, then print out a copy for each child. I then hand-write individualized comments for each child- sometimes in great detail and sometimes with checkmarks in each section unless there has been a problem. You can download a copy of the form below here.
Bi-Weekly Work Sample Reflection Form For __________ April 13-27, 2007
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Homework Completion |
Class Work Completion |
Work Habits/ Effort |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
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Week ending April 20-
Week ending April 27-
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Language Arts/
Reading
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The fact/opinion activity you see in the folder was quite difficult- however, there should be an improvement by the end of chapter test.
Your child has now learned how to write all cursive letters (see packet in folder)! We will continue practicing cursive writing daily.
FCAT Practice Test-
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Math |
Two digit division-
We will begin division with remainders next week- please see the attached game you can play to help your child with this concept.
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Social Studies/
Science |
Our world history unit is going well! Thank you Mr. Yahua for doing the presentation on ancient Egypt!
In science, we are learning about animals and food chains. Ask your child about the predators/prey activity we did outside.
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Parent Signature/Comments: (PLEASE SIGN & RETURN THIS PAPER BY FRIDAY MAY 4th)
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Key: 1: Outstanding 2: Satisfactory 3: Improvement Needed
Student Reflection
I am most proud of _______________________________________________________________________
because ________________________________________________________________________________.
For the rest of the school year, I ______________________________________________________________________________.
A MORE DETAILED SYSTEM THAT FOCUSES ON ACADEMIC PROGRESS, STUDENT REFLECTION, PORTFOLIO COLLECTION, AND VERBAL CONFERENCING
Here's the method I used several years ago when I had a group of very involved parents who wanted frequent, detailed updates on academic progress and (rightly) assumed there were no problems behaviorally. (Because this class was so well-behaved as a whole, I had individual behavior plans for the kids who needed it and left that information off of this form. You could easily add a section for behavior/work completion if desired.)
Instead of sending home graded work every week with the weekly evaluation that focuses on behavior and work habits, I noted these issues as needed in students' agenda books (this is explained in the Weekly Evaluations page) and sent home graded work in a bi-weekly work folder with the following form that focuses on academic progress. Here is an example of what a completed form might look like: some of the formatting is lost below but you can download a clean copy here, or choose the version with no student reflection area (could be used with younger students).
How does this form work?
Print one form for each child every two weeks.
Save all student graded work during the two-week period.
Briefly review each students’ work and write comments as appropriate.
Let students view their work and select pieces for their portfolios to be shared at parent conferences.
Students read teacher comments and fill out the student reflection box.
Hold 2-5 minute student conferences to discuss reflection/work. (You can do half of the class every 2 weeks so each child has a monthly conference).
Check off whether a student conference was held, then comment on reflections, and sign.
Send form home for parent signature.
Keep signed forms in student portfolios for review at conferences.
Isn't this form a lot of work?
Yes, it is! But, it should only take about 45 minutes to do the forms and 45 minutes to conference every 2 weeks. That’s only 3 hours a month to:
-discuss progress and set goals with students individually
-provide detailed feedback to parents on student progress
-maintain student portfolios with meaningful student reflection
-document communication with parents on all areas of development
Why send papers home bi-weekly?
The emphasis is on noting patterns of progress while identifying problems in time to reteach and provide additional support. It's a system that's easily manageable for the teacher and parents- and it's harder to accomplish all of that if you send home work every day or even every week. For example, let's say you're teaching geometry. If you send home practice papers each day, they'll probably get tossed in the trash or abandoned in the bottom of the backpack- the parents never see them because most don't have time to look over a child's work every single day. When papers are sent home weekly, parents are more likely to look at them. The problem arises when they see something a child isn't doing well on and freak out. Including two weeks worth of work allows the parent and teacher to see progress. You might note in the math section, "Aisha's project clearly shows that she understands plane figures. She had trouble identifying angles at first, but doing the test corrections helped. You can see how much better she's doing with them on this week's test". Or, you might not notice progress and can comment on that, too, as well as some changes you want to make to your instruction ("Aisha has struggled with all the cause/effect activities we did- I'm going to pull her for extra small group work this week"). Making those kinds of notes solidifies in the teacher's mind just how well each child is mastering concepts, which is difficult when grading stacks of paper: the bi-weeklies are a great time of reflection for me as well as my families. The forms help me gather my thoughts before parent conferences and report cards, and serve as great documentation.
How do I set up the routines and procedures?
* Set up a weekly routine: remember, you have every other week "off" since these are bi-weekly folders.
* Send home folders on a day of the week that's less busy for you (I do Mondays).
* Begin reviewing student work and writing comments whenever you can steal a few minutes on Friday or whichever day is before you send folders home.
* Have students review their work and reflect on it for Morning Work on Friday morning so no time is taken from academics.
* Conference with students during Fun Friday or recess: they enjoy the one-on-one time so much it's actually a huge reward!
* On Monday, have a child put student work into the bi-weekly folders with the forms and pass them out.
* Send the folders home on Monday and make them due that Friday (I have weekly HW **packets so this works really well).
* Set up consequences for those who do not return the folders on time (loss of privileges, etc.)
What can I do to save time?
-Type directly into the form so you can reuse certain comments or announcements for multiple children. I look through a folder, type the child's name and comments into the form, then print it. I then move on to the next folder and repeat, not saving any of the changes, just printing. I can usually get through the whole class in a half an hour this way and it looks very professional. The kids do their reflections afterwards, instead of beforehand, which works equally well.
-Have kids file all graded papers and put them in the folders for you.
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