WANT TO RAISE YOUR CHILD'S GRADES? BE PROACTIVE

Dr. Wendy Ghiora
Posting #101 – January 17, 2012

In about two weeks, you’ll be receiving your child’s first semester grades. If you even suspect there may be problems, such as lower grades than you anticipated, now is the time to act. As soon as school reconvenes, call and schedule appointments with your child’s teachers.

Be proactive. Begin the meeting by thanking the teacher for all the hard work she has done with your child. Do your homework and be prepared with specific questions. These are some I recommend:

1. What are my child's strengths?
If the only news you return with is about your child's deficits weaknesses (i.e. attention span, engagement, effort), your child can be left with feelings of failure and inadequacy. A balanced report gives you, the parent, a good second perspective from an objective teacher's point of view. This question also gives you valuable information about how the teacher sees your child.
It can tell you much about the farsightedness or nearsightedness of the teacher. Does she see his strengths and is she capable of articulating them by providing specific examples? Or is she always looking at problems and limitations?

2. What are the major goals other than academics that are addressed in the classroom?
Is there a focus on something besides test scores, benchmarks and grades?
Other goals could include: higher level thinking, cooperation, leadership, responsibility, application, in-depth analysis and being able to see several sides of an issue. Are these skills being covered? Where is your child in regards to these areas?

3. How are my child's social skills?
Do people like him? Does he make and have friends or is he seen as a bully? How does she handle adversity and social conflict at school? Ask for specific examples of what the teacher is seeing, don't accept generalizations or judgmental labels. You want to know how the teacher really views your child when the grades are set aside.

4. Is my child working to the best of his ability?
How is progress measured? If my child is currently behind in any assignments, what are they, and how can he make them up? How can I monitor my child's completion of assignments on a daily basis?

5.What type of learner is my child (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile)?
How does she accommodate differences in learning? How does she differentiate lessons to meet the needs of all learners?

6. What standardized tests will be administered this year?
How much class time will be devoted to preparing students for them?

7. How can I support your teaching program at home?
What can we do at home to support you? What does he need to work on and how can I help? Get specific feedback, such as "has difficulty combining sentences" or "has difficulty summarizing stories," as well as specific information about how you can tackle any issues.

8. How can we engage in timely communication?
What is the best way to keep in touch with the teacher (telephone, email)? Let the teacher know you are an important part of her team. Ensure the teacher you have a common purpose; to help your child realize his potential as a student and a productive member of society.


By being proactive and creating situations, you do not have to wait for the bad ones to come and force you to react.
Anonymous