If you’re like me, you worry, as you write report cards, that you’re going to get negative responses from some parents. You never meet them, they never call to inquire about how their kids are doing, but come report card time, they‘re salivating at the thought of being able to corner you in the parent-teacher meeting.
Why, they demand, did you not tell me sooner about my child’s struggles?
Why, you wonder, are you so out of the loop when it comes to how your child spends 30 or more hours a week?
It’s probably best not to respond provocatively – no matter how badly you want to, no matter how many such conversations you’ve already had (or are going to have) on parent-teacher day.
Though parent-teacher meetings ought not to be adversarial, they sometimes are – and I can’t help wondering if it’s because parents don’t understand much of what happens in the course of a school day, how lessons are planned and delivered, how marks are computed.
Maybe some of the enmity can be prevented if we were to design a handout or hold an information session for parents with some key information:
- What marks mean. What percentage is allotted to in-class work, homework completion, tests, projects, participation? What is the difference between formative and summative evaluation?
- The instructional scope and sequence. What units of study will students be involved in? What’s the expected timeline? What are the major skills and concepts to be learned in each unit? How and when will that learning be measured? Remember, parents can’t know what goes on unless you tell them. Make sure they understand how much time their child has to practice new learning (through in-class work, homework, extended projects).
- The homework issue. Is the student doing the homework, completely and to advantage? Tell the parents how quick your turnaround time is for marking and returning assignments. Make sure parents knows the child can use your feedback and redo some assignments in order to gain mastery of skills and concepts.
- The importance of reviewing the child’s agenda/binder/notebooks. Do parents have an inkling of the quality of work their child does? Do parents see that the child doesn’t make the corrections after you mark the work – even after you remind her? Does the parent know that their child seldom resubmits work for re-correction and feedback?
- Evaluation. Can you provide a schedule of tests – so parents can help you encourage the child to study over a period of time instead of just cramming the night before? Perhaps you can talk to parents about the value of practice tests. That might be something they can work on with their child. You can also ask parents to supervise test corrections so the child understands what she went wrong.
This is petty elementary stuff to be sure, and you probably have lots of ideas of your own.
The thing is to try to find a gentle way to remind parents that their child’s education is not a product for which you are responsible. Rather, it’s a dynamic work in progress that has more potential when everyone is working meaningfully and cooperatively with a common goal.
Here’s hoping the parent-teacher day gods are good to you.
Until next time….
Diane
Diane Duff, B. Ed., M. A., has been working with students and families for almost twenty years. Her areas of expertise are literacy development, special education, reading disability/dyslexia, and teacher training. At Aldridge-Duff, the private education business she founded ten years ago, Diane coordinates a highly experienced team of certified teachers who provide in-home tutoring and academic support to students (all ages/grades/abilities) in both Ottawa and Toronto.
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