****SEE COMMENT SECTION OF SUNDAY'S SCIENCE FAIR POST FOR SCIENCE FAIR UPDATE****
The ELA test results were not on this report card and was told that the results would probably be on the 3rd quarter report card. So I have to wait another 3 months to find out the results, sigh. I just want to know already! Geesh! I don't want to wait.
As for her report card in general - she did well in most of her subjects (and superb on her mid-terms) and would've been a candidate for 1st honors. But her Language Arts and Reading grades were too low for her to qualify. Because of those two grades she'll get an "effort" certificate - which is like a 3rd place award. Reading and spelling are her worst subjects. Reading because she gets bored easily and tends to lose focus on it. With spelling she gets very "creative" in how she spells some words. She was really not getting the basic priniples of spelling and common letter pairings for a while. This year she's improved a great deal with spelling but still needs improvement. It's the only subject she doesn't do well in because she just doesn't have tha knack for it. All the other subjects are contingent on how interested she is in the subject so she can maintain focus. If she pays attention then she's an A student. She also has issues with neatness.
I was surprised by the grades because she was doing better this semester. What concerns me is Jazz told me that her music teacher (who helps out with afterschool) said there was some glitch in the software they entered the grades into. He'd put in an A and then it would show up as an F on the report card. She also said that one of her friends got a 50 in a subject because of this computer glitch and it had to be fixed. I think I am going to write a note to express my concern. Because her grades don't match the tests I get back. And Jazz is not one to hide a test just because she doesn't do well. She has shown me some doozies from last semester. If she were going to hide tests she did badly on - that would've been the time to do it.
The only thing I can think of as a contributing factor is they had less tests this semester and grades on tests account for a majority of the grade, i.e. less grades to average in - the more a low grade will bring down your overall grade.
I think a lot of parents would be happy with the kind of report card Jazzmin brought home. But it bothers me when she doesn't do as well as I know she is capable of. Sometimes when she struggles with something I worry she's reached the zenith of her acedemic career and will become very average. But I know that an irrational worry. Things like this make me wonder why my parents didn't have more of a reaction to my grades, I was a C/D student. When Jazzmin struggles in a subject I try to work with her to see what the issue is and how we can resolve it so she can bring her grades up. I think when I was growing up I was looked at as the artistic one and the academic bar was set low for me, where my parents were concerned.
2 comments:
Well, that's a little stressful. But at least we know Jazzmin is very talented. At least this is just mid-year. Unfortunately, if grades are important to her, she's going to have to do boring stuff sometimes. Maybe if she's interested in getting first honors, she'll be more motivated to do things she finds a little boring? If Brian and I can help with incentives (rock-climbing lessons? I don't know), let us know. My sense is that Jazzmin wouldn't respond to those anyway, though.
As for the academic bar being set low for you, I don't know about that! I think Mom and Dad had sort of a laissez-faire attitude --I think Brenda, Vallerie, and I might have all had a similar experience to you -- not a lot of attention paid to the particular going-ons in our classes, sort of up to each of us to do our thing.
The thing that baffles me is that the tests I got back were better then the 1st quarter. This quarter's grade doesn't make sense at all to me. I sent her teacher a note today to find out how it is she's done better on tests (which accounts for majority of grade) but got a lower quarter grade. I'm going to request extra credit in Language Arts and Reading so as to help out with 3rd quarter's grade.
Jazzmin is already very motivated to do well and get high grades. She's always willing to make the extra effort. Except for reading - reading a book is really like pulling teeth. I think the only thing that can resolve that is, hopefully, with maturity she'll be better able to suck it up and just do it.
As far as the our parent's approach re: involvement to help us improve my grades. I guess it's hard for me to comprehend not feeling compelled to have a hands on approach to my kid's grades. If there are bad grades - I feel the need to resolve it.
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