Mastering Report Card Comments: Tips for Writing Effective Math Report Card Comments

Writing report card comments is an opportunity for teachers, educators, students, and parents to be informed about a student’s academic learning curve. Math report card comments can often be overlooked as the focus is placed on tests, assignments, and classroom behaviour.

Understanding Common Student Struggles 

Many students struggle with different subjects, primarily math. In a recent study released in December 2023, it revealed that the overall math scores of Canadian students fell 15 points between 2018 and 2022. This means that one in every five students is performing at the lowest math level. 

How does this translate for math report card comments? Students and parents need to be aware of the individual student’s learning status. Using detailed and informative report card comments is an excellent way for teachers to relay important information about a child’s math education to his or her parents or guardians. 

Tips for Writing Effective Math Report Card Comments

Here are some helpful tips when writing effective math report card comments: 

• Create Specific Strategies for Math Comments: As math is a diverse subject, the comments may require specific strategies. Be descriptive in the writing by focusing on measurements, geometry, arithmetic, or fractions. 

• Customize Comments to Support Each Student’s Needs: It may be tempting to use a template to create dozens of report card comments, but each student’s report card should have customized comments about their learning curve, achievements, and areas that need improvement. 

• Recognize Effort, Engagement, and Motivation: In the endeavour to create encouraging comments for report cards, educators can use examples of the student’s progress, classroom behaviour, and work attitude. Each student has distinguishing strengths and weaknesses that should be recognized, respectively. 

• Engage Parents Effectively: Encourage the parents or home support system to be engaged in the student’s learning through open communication. Provide tips on how they may be able to support the student’s home learning in the comment section.

• Offer Resources and Support for Students: While the comment section is often reserved for explanations relating to grades and/or the student’s progress, use it to also outline the student’s goals for the upcoming term or year. This should be supported with attainable resources and solutions for the student and the parents. 

• Proofread Your Comments Carefully: A great teacher leads by example and that is why proofreading all comments before submitting the report card is vital. Take a few minutes and re-read the written comments at least twice to ensure all points are addressed, grammatically correct, and professionally presented. 
  
• Use Simple Language for Powerful Comments: By using clear and concise language within the report card comment section, the information will be better understood by the student and the home support system. It is important to ensure that there is no miscommunication or misinterpretation of the goals for the student.

Invest in TIMESAVERS for TEACHERS’ Resources for Personalized and Impactful Report Card Comments

At TIMESAVERS for TEACHERS, we offer an extensive, ready-to-use, edited Report Card Comments Collection, complete with 1,800 common report card remarks for all English-speaking teachers. We also offer the following time-saving resources that can help teachers stay on top of their report card submissions: The Teacher’s Binder, Substitute Teacher Instruction Kit, and Classroom Awards. Contact us today to learn more or to place an order.