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Post by sooz on Oct 21, 2014 10:43:26 GMT
Hi all.
snooz just had a fab parents evening, teacher says she's really pleased with how he's settling and working. Happy days!
but, his work books were sent home for me to look through and sign off. Lots of work in them but each page has negative comments from his teacher. 'Good work but it would have been better if you did x' 'try to write a whole page next time' 'you can do better than this' .......... Some pages have 3 negative comments! There was nothing purely positive.
is this standard? Of course I understand the need to push him but this just feels all critical and knowing Snooz most likely to get him to switch off.
if there was a balance i think I'd feel better about it.
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Post by daffin on Oct 21, 2014 12:15:21 GMT
I think it's what teachers are expected to do now to stretch kids. Seems crazy to me!
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Post by flutterby on Oct 21, 2014 13:31:13 GMT
I would talk to the teacher and let him/her know what the likely consequences are going to be. Let them know that you understand that this is what they are expected to do, but since it is going to produce the exact opposite of what it is meant to do, maybe they could make an exception and write encouraging comments.
I do not know, who came up with the idea that this might be a good way of encouraging kids, it can't have been anyone knowing anything about child development, that is for sure. Maybe if enough parents complain it will get fed back to whoever is in charge and they will change their tack.
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Post by serrakunda on Oct 21, 2014 16:20:11 GMT
Yes, Simba's work often has comments like could be neater, yes it could but he usually gets it all right so it would be nice if that was acknowledged
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Post by donatella on Oct 21, 2014 17:13:36 GMT
Nothing like a bit of positive reinforcement eh!?
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Post by gilreth on Oct 21, 2014 18:30:26 GMT
Bizarrely at my end of education we are encouraged to right positive feedback before we go onto critical stuff. It's hard sometimes but still something I think is worthwhile doing.
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Post by milly on Oct 21, 2014 18:45:05 GMT
We have a very clear and fairly complicated marking system at our school. We have a code we use to tell children what they have done well, and can also write positive comments. But we also write an improvement comment tailored to the child eg they might need to correct mistake or answer a question. They are very specific and relate only to the task. Not generic stuff like "write more neatly" or "try harder". Our system is what is considered best practice (and Ofsted said we were the most consistent school they'd seen in terms of marking). There's research that shows apparently that targeted feedback is the most effective way to improve achievement. Although oral feedback is better than written - we give time for our children to read and respond at the beginning of the lesson.
However this doesn't sound like what I am talking about. I had similar when dd was year 4 with a most ineffective teacher. I complained to the head and actually they reviewed their marking policy soon after plus the teacher left the school (don't suppose the latter was down to me but I may have possibly influenced the former!!)
I would query it - especially if there are several negatives on one piece of work.
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Post by sooz on Oct 21, 2014 23:23:42 GMT
Thank you.. The teacher did tell me that she was really pleased with him, very pleased with progress, that he's working better, more calm..... So I did get lots of positives, and he was in the room and heard all this.
Think that's why it was such a shock to then read those comments.
Maybe though he is given verbal praise and the written comments are just areas for improvement.
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Post by justbserene11 on Oct 22, 2014 14:39:37 GMT
When I wrote comments in my students book, I wrote about was good, what could be improved (and how) and lastly what the student could do achieve the next level....kinda like a compliment sandwich. I am really not sure why they are not doing this......
Personally, I always found negative comments/feedback to be demoralising, so always tried to either end with a positive or put a positive spin to my feedback.
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