4 ways to write effective report card comments for high schoolers 📝

We've all been there...the end of the term is creeping closer and you need to write student reports. But how can you sum up a student's progress in just a few sentences and also inspire them to continue improving?

I've been teaching for 8 years and used to spend SO MUCH TIME writing student report card comments. I'm going to share with you how to save time and also write comments that motivate and encourage your learners.

When you don't have a template to work off, everything is more difficult. A way to make report writing easier is to ask for some examples. This way, you can see what is expected of your report card comments. Your school or department might have specific requirements, and it'll help you to see examples of what these are.

Photo by Annika Gordon on Unsplash

Who to ask?

• Fellow teachers might have reports from previous years.

• A senior teacher could also help out.

What to look for?

• What tone are the reports written in?

• What are the comments focusing on?

Keep it to yourself though!

If you do see some examples, maybe they'll be anonymized. In case they're not, make sure you keep the information in them to yourself. It's not information to gossip about with other teachers or students!

Even though you know your students well, it's hard to write an individual comment that represents them. Using an adjective or phrase bank can help you to come up with ideas.

Find one on the internet

Teachers are a generous bunch and loads of us have shared our report card comments online. Have a search and find one you like to inspire you. I like this report card comments bank, which is split into helpful categories.

Build your own

As you write your reports, copy and paste comments into a document. Next term, you can use this document to help you — you can use these comments as inspiration, or you can even reuse them. Just make sure you always update students' names!

These comments will be in your own voice, which helps add a personal touch. Students and parents can sense this, and it helps them engage with what you say.

It's super easy to praise your star student, and offer tips to your students who need to improve. But we need to make sure our reports are balanced — how can we do this?

Observe students in class

In the weeks before you write your reports, keep an eye out in class for things you can comment on in the report. You can jot these down into a notebook or a spreadsheet. Here are two examples inspired by my own experience:

• Lucy helped a friend with a difficult exercise. This is a perfect opportunity to mention how helpful she is.

• Ahmed was upset when he didn't get full marks in a pop quiz. You can comment on managing his expectations.

Proof read

A great way to make sure your comments are effective is to come back and proof read them a few days after you've written them. When you're reading, ask yourself if the comment is fair and if it praises the student and offers them an area to work on.

Quiz time!

You've noticed one of your students, Mark, is very nervous and anxious before tests and exams. He usually gets high results. What comment could you put on his report?

A. Mark should study more in order to boost his confidence when taking exams.

B. It might help if Mark develops some strategies to help him feel calm before exams.

C. Mark should be proud of his results this term.

D. Mark doesn't need to be nervous as he's doing great. Great work Mark!

Using AI to help write your report card comments is a surefire way to save time. As with any use of AI, there are a few things to be aware of:

1. Make sure to double-check the content it produces — no blind copy and paste here.

2. The more specific your prompts are, the better your comments will be. You may want to use an example comment to help the AI see what style of writing you are going for.

3. Some schools may have strict rules about the use of AI. Double check what the policy is — you don't want to get yourself into trouble!