Dear Parents,
As I am in the middle of writing report cards, I have stopped to share some information with you. As a teacher, the least favourite part of my job is giving children grades. I wish I could tell you how your child is learning, what they are learning, what they know, and where they need to improve without attaching a "value" to their work. But, I cannot do this. I am held to the responsibility of reporting to you, to my principals, to the government, and to next year's teacher, how your child compares to the provincial standard.
The Learning Skills section of the report card really is the most important part of the report. That's why, a number of years ago, it was moved from the last section of the report card to the very first thing parents read. Please be sure to celebrate your child's successes and talk about where and how you think there's room for improvement.
Some of you may have questions about the use of number levels and how those relate to letter grades on the report card. Here's the scoop:
A- to A+ (level 4)
B- to B+ (level 3) This is the Provincial Standard.
C- to C+ (level 2)
D- to D+ (level 1)
Please keep this in mind: when we were in school, in primary and junior grades, if you did everything right, just the way the teacher asked, you received an A. Now, when children do just as I ask, getting all - or most - of the correct answers, they receive a B. To get an A, the child must exceed the standard. It does not mean they have to do grade 2 work if they are in grade 1. They have to show the initiative to "give me more", often without being asked.
An example for math: I ask the children to sort out some pattern blocks. My expectation is they can sort in two ways. It really doesn't matter which two ways they sort, by colour, shape, size or thickness. I will say to them, "Please sort these pattern blocks." The child sorts by shape. Then I say, "Please sort them another way." The child sorts by colour. If that's where the child stops, they receive a B for this sorting activity. They have met my expectation. If the child says to me, "I could also sort by size, by putting the big triangles here and the little triangles there," the child would receive an A for this sorting activity.
An example for writing: When teaching our poetry unit, using curriculum expectations as a guide, the expectation our grade one team decided was appropriate was that the children would use a descriptive word and a detail in each line of their poem.
A level 2 sentence might be: Fall feels like sweaters on me.
A level 3 sentence might be: Fall feels like soft sweaters on my body.
A level 4 sentence might be: Fall feels like my cozy red sweater keeping me warm.
You can see there's a higher level of sophistication to the level 4 sentence.
As often as possible, I use open-ended questions during assessment, allowing the children to show me more. For example, in Science, an assessment question might be: "Tell me about different materials and give me an example of something made from that material." If your child can only name wood and plastic, and forgets about glass, metal, paper, fabric and rubber, that response shows "some" understanding, not "considerable" understanding .
Occasionally, some tasks do not allow for level 4 work. Some things are fairly "cut and dry". For an example: Can your child recreate the colour wheel, mixing primary colours to make secondary colours? They can either do it accurately (level 3), or can only do some of it accurately (level 2). When I ask the children to use primary and secondary colours in a piece of art work, there is room for level 4 work. Did they mix colours accurately? Did they use the space on the page well? Is there a balance between large and small objects? What is the overall presentation of this piece of artwork?
I just want you to know that I'm a parent, too. I understand you want your child to do well in school and you would like to see A's on the report card. And part of me wishes I could give A's with abandon! Please, just remember that B is the provincial standard and B is the expectation of the children in grade one (and every year after!). We also realize that the pandemic years have had a significant impact on children's learning. Please be assured that we continually work to meet the academic needs of our students.
I hope this has helped you to understand a bit about grading.
Sincerely yours,
Your Child's Teacher