Writing report card comments is SUCH a commitment. I typically teach between 120-180 students each year so my report card comments can end up being 100 pages long. It’s wild! And I definitely don’t have the time to type each comment individually, so I use a comment bank.
I know that comment banks can be a taboo subject but we have to be realistic here. The kiddos are still getting a personalized comment as the comment does reflect their personal ability. And I do try to add something specific to each student within the comment.
But overall I do use a comment bank because it just saves SO much time!
Let’s talk about how I use my comment bank to provide accurate and personalized comments for all of my students.
Step 1: Create the bank
First things first, you need to figure out what you want your comments to be. In my school board, in FLA we give 4 different marks. We assess the students’ listening, speaking, reading, and writing separately. So I actually make 4 different comment sections for each kiddo. I use a base that I reuse every year and I adjust it to include the topics that we’ve covered.
For example, here is a student who is achieving excellence in listening comprehension.
“___ has excellent listening comprehension in French. They have demonstrated that they can expertly understand and respond to a variety of listening activities such as short video clips and songs. Unfamiliar topics, accents, and situations do not hinder comprehension.”
If you are interested in building your own comment bank, sign-up here and I will send you my guided comments.
Step 2: Identify student grades
Now that your bank is ready, you should probably figure out what grades you are giving to your kiddos. Now, this is likely going to be very board-specific so you’ll have to adjust accordingly. For me, I give a number between 1-4, 4 being the highest. We also don’t do an average, we are supposed to be assessing our students where they are now, not where they were in September. So I do my best to assign a grade for each language competency for each kiddo. In my opinion, this step is the hardest part so take your time and make sure you’re happy with your decisions.
Step 3: Copy/paste comments
Lastly, it’s time to create those comments! Because I give 4 different marks, I set up my document a little differently than you might, but I’ll share what I do in hopes that you can adjust it to fit your board requirements.
Example:
Student
Listening – 4
Speaking – 3
Reading – 4
Writing – 3
Student – Comment
I set up my page like this so that I then just go to my comment bank and copy-paste the comment for each competency.
This comment would then be:
___ has excellent listening comprehension in French. They have demonstrated that they can expertly understand and respond to a variety of listening activities such as short video clips and songs. Unfamiliar topics, accents, and situations do not hinder comprehension. ___ demonstrates increased confidence when speaking in French and is usually able to use the grammar topics covered this term in order to express ideas during regular class discussions. __ sometimes makes an effort to speak French in class with peers. __has an excellent understanding of a variety of informational and fictional texts that we read in class, such as l’Assassin impossible. As such, they are able to consistently express opinions regarding what we have read in a detailed fashion. __ can expertly summarize what we have read while identifying main ideas, specific details, and implementing inference strategies. __ has shown an understanding of and ability to properly use a variety of grammar topics covered such as the present and the imperfect tenses as well as word families (noun, verb, adjective, etc.). __ work is well written in regards to content and conventions.
Decided you want to take a look at my French guided comment bank now? Sign-up here and I’ll send you the document immediately.
I hope this helps you with your report card writing this year. If you have other suggestions, let me know in the comments!