Job Discussion Forums

[jay-shi]

Do you have to write evaluations for your students? If you do, what can and can't you say about your students? Are you allowed to be honest about your student's performance?

How long do they have to be? Do they have to be hand written or done on a computer?

i am curious about what the practices are in different parts of the world.

I have to write about 150 evaluations every 2 months and they have to be mostly positive. Anything too negative wouldn't go over too well either with management or with parents.

[Justin Trullinger]

Usually do them on computer, but if you'd ever seen my handwriting, you'd see the advantage in that!

We usually do reports at midterm and at the end of term. (Terms are 10 weeks, 60 hours of class, so every five weeks or every thirty hours.)

When I say that I can be completely honest...maybe it would be better to say I AM honest, and parents, students, and management are getting used to it. Sometimes there are complaints, but what's the point in a report that only tells you what you want to hear?

Regards,

Justin

[Glenski]

At my old conversation school, no.
At my high school, no for most classes.
The exception is a group of 15-20 higher level students. In that class, their grades are determined by the 5 major tests they take during the year (far too easy for them, but the administration won't listen to reason on changing that). My "evaluation" is given to them when they get grades, and it is meant to explain their weaknesses so they are motivated to improve next year. Admin would also like some positive points put in them, too, but overall it must be honest. Since these evaluations have no bearing on their grades, I see them as pointless.

[Girl Scout]

We write weekly communication books. We inform the parents about this weeks lessons and next weeks lessons. At the bottom we have to write comments to the parents about performance and behavior. Twice a year we write evaluations to our bosses about the students. We are allowed to say anything we want. I mostly feel that they don't care what we think and already have their own opinions about the students.

[jay-shi]

I am also wondering in what areas do you evaluate students. At my school we currently evaluate participation, behavior, vocabulary, pronunciation, reading and writing. Do your evaluations focus on these areas as well or maybe on some other ones?

[Glenski]

jay,
How do you keep track of the first four things for 150 students? Pretty qualitative judgment calls in most cases, I would say. As for me, it's pretty impossible because I have almost 400 students, and I barely get to know 10% of their names.

[jay-shi]

[Glenski]

jay-shi,
That's all well and good for pronunciation and vocabulary, and as for reading and writing there's always some homework I presume you grade.

However, how the heck do you keep track of participation and behavior for 150 students? And, just how much of their grades are reflected in assessing these two parameters. At my high school, such things are required of us by the administration, but even with Japanese co-teachers we wing it most of the time. If the J teacher doesn't know the kids or have some red mark in his/her attendance book when a kid goofs off, we just give everyone a full score on these matters. Even when they get red marks, how much is actually taken off varies from teacher to teacher and amounts to practically nothing substantive.