Ask A Tutor Tuesday – 1/19/2016
Question: “I have been working with my student for a month and she’s getting her report card next week. I want to review it with her but I’m not sure how to go about doing this, especially considering her low grades. I’m concerned about embarrassing her. Do you have any tips?“
Report cards are a great way to track student progress throughout the school year. They include useful feedback from teachers, and grades (or points) are assigned to show whether or not students are reaching grade level standards. On the other hand, grades can easily decrease a student’s confidence if he or she is performing below grade level and receives low grades. As tutors, we can help our students by using report cards (or any other evaluations) as a way to reflect on academic performance. When reviewing a report card, we can ask our students the following questions to help them learn how to reflect, rather than dwell, on grades they earn:
- How do you feel about this semester?
- What are your strengths? Why do you think you were so successful? Think about specific things you did this semester.
- What are some things we can work on? What skill can we develop during our tutoring sessions to improve this grade?
- What are three realistic goals you can make to sustain or improve your grades?
- Finish these sentences: 1. I am proud of myself because… 2. I would like to improve in…. 3. I will commit to… to achieve my personal goal next semester.
All in all, we should remind students that in life, evaluations (like report cards) are necessary, but we must remember to take the time to reflect on our performance and strive for personal growth.
About the tutor: Jackie Romo has been a School in Wheels tutor for nearly 9 years. Aside from tutoring, she teaches first grade in Rowland Heights and recently earned a MS in reading. She is happy to help in any way she can to make your tutoring sessions successful!
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