AWARENESS & RESPONSIBLITY - COMMUNICATING STUDENTS PROGRESS

I am showcasing the criteria of awareness that I strongly recommend to other teachers which contributed to enhancing the working culture of our school and mainly about effective ways of communicating with parents to take part in the student's progress.

I strongly believe that when parents and teachers work together, the impact on student progress can be significant. But the parent-teaching partnership, like any other, won't work without communication.

After experimenting, I added these methods of communication which really helped me out.

1. I have created the student portfolios:

Detailed progress reports are made and sent to the parents every month showing the student's academic standards. As an early learning educator for young learners, I totally focus not only on the subject but also on the behavior and improving their motor skills aspect as well. I list the solution for all parents individually to enhance the ability of the students where they are lacking and report with the evidence of my findings during my activities and lessons. I also file the information of all the students and store it in the drive to evaluate their progress and track them in an organized way.

Below is the link to my drive for your reference to access my student's portfolio:  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jAXLqho8MbNrmgwKH63uZUjfM0IV4r9R

2. Involving Rubrics tool

I teach my students with academic, emotional, or behavioral needs, and level them using the rubrics tool

Example: 

Level 5: The student attained this standard independently, without teacher assistance.
Level 4: The student required some prompting.
Level 3: The student needed frequent prompting.
Level 2: The student achieved this skill only under constant teacher guidance and/or supervision.

Remember, rubrics help clear up confusion. Without the rubric, parents might see work that comes home and believe that their child completed it independently. They won’t understand why they scored less on the test that came later that week.
Rubrics remove the mystery to give parents a clear picture of what’s going on in the classroom.

3. I often take photographs and make a video

As we all know “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

I often take pictures and videos of my students and document that by sharing them in the ME app showcasing student achievement. Photos are especially valuable for showing improvement.  The parents might even hang the photos up on the refrigerator so their child can proudly observe their own progress. In my opinion, the photos can also be a great shorthand to communicate details about the day. Very young children, and those with communication difficulties, might find it difficult to describe their accomplishments to their parents. Photos make it easier.

4. Send the weekly planned syllabus with the audio content via ME for practice at home

I often make sure to regularly convey the syllabus for next week through the ME app. Parents will be happy to know about the students learning process and what they are going to learn for the next week.

 This will also help them to practice at home with what we are teaching in the class to enhance their memory power and improve their language. 

I also translate the syllabus file into Vietnamese with the help of the English department admins, so that the parents can understand the content and teach the students with the help of my chants and audio files as shown above in the picture.

As I posted for the week, I also make sure to follow and assist the parent's needs by replying to their queries and concerns. I have listed the above picture for your reference.

5. Send the student progress reports after each unit

I set a goal to send individual progress reports to parents with overviews of their child’s progress, every month after each unit. It's a soft copy file and we scan it before sending them.

I also use to translate the file into Vietnamese with the help of the teaching assistants so that the parents can be well aware of the progress of the students with our English lessons. I also showed pictures of my student's progress which is getting improved when compared to earlier and a good response to the importance of our comments. It emphasizes the clear evidence of which parents work with their kids at home for improvement with our advice.

I keep my drive organized to avoid e-clutter. Create a sub-folder with the name of each student, and archive all reports under the appropriate heading. Even if it takes a lot of time to do it, I put all our efforts into it as it has meaningful growth in the progress of our students.

6. Have Students Practice Self-Monitoring

Most teachers underutilize self-monitoring—it’s not something we often think about. But self-monitoring can be a quick and easy way for students to take charge of their own progress monitoring.
Some of my students might require frequent progress monitoring—even daily assessments. I always show them information after the progress by talking with them.

Investing time in parent communication can be really useful to enhance our student's progress. Hope this above information was helpful for you.

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