School qualifications: the attitude of the parents in front of the notes
What do we see when our parents have a newsletter for our children? We parents must take into account that for a teacher it is very difficult, if not impossible, to condense into a single note -which is the one that appears on the school report- to the minimum detail of the work, of the illusion and of the good intentions that our children waste during a long term to get good grades.
For this reason, school grades that our children are bringing home ALWAYS should become an occasion to talk and discuss with them, adapting to their level, the reasons for both their successes and their possible failures or bad grades. The attitude of the parents in front of the notes they must have the purpose of drawing positive conclusions and in any case continue forward.
What importance and weight to give school grades
First Cycle of Primary Education
Comprende 1st and 2ndWhen our children are between 6 and 8 years old, much emphasis must be placed on what we call instrumental learning, that is, reading, writing and calculation. And in addition to the notes we should look at:
1. Daily improvement In these courses, regarding school grades we must focus our attention on the daily improvement of the child's work. It is convenient to congratulate them because TODAY their duties are cleaner and better presented than YESTERDAY, that is, we should be happy with them for every small step taken in the tasks. We can also celebrate in the dinner that has learned the table of 2, or that in the notebook the teacher has put a good grade.
2. Motivation for the effort. For a child of this age that is significant and, therefore, becomes a great motivation to want to continue improving their school grades. Also, if you have made a mistake in an exercise, we will indicate it at the time and we encourage you to delete it and try again.
If one day your letter is visibly of worse quality, we can show you the previous pages where you tried and the result was clearly better. Think that at these ages the concept of time is still very immature, so the repercussion that in our children can have a report card which reflects the result of something they did for three very long months is insignificant.
Second Cycle of Primary Education
It means that we are in 3rd or 4th grade and that we have between 8 and 10 years. If everything went as it should in the previous cycle, the basic skills are already well established, although we must continue to insist. But we go one step further. It is the moment in which formal thought begins to develop, therefore, tasks that are influenced by reasoning will become more important. We should look at:
1. Mathematics and Language. Enter the problem solving, reading comprehension and natural sciences. Why the latter? Because through the study of the subject that is called Knowledge of the Middle, many thinking skills are developed and important study strategies are developed.
2. Quarterly improvement. So, now that the grades will have more weight, our son will have to dedicate a minimum of time to personal study and to the memorization and assimilation of contents, so that the qualification of the exams and later of the bulletin of notes will be important for him. Let's not lose sight of the fact that a good newsletter does not exclusively reflect the score of one or several controls, we are still in Primary Education and therefore should continue to have a great weight in the quarterly grade the daily work and progress of the student.
During this cycle it is vital that we help our children to gain autonomy and personal responsibility in their daily work. For a teacher it is a real dilemma when the very serious and convinced student tells him "I do not take homework (or the book, or the babi or the case or the sports team, ...) because my mother has forgotten put them in the backpack. " And at best, giving him a sense of humor, the teacher replies: "Well, we have a problem, because your mother does not appear on the list of 4th Primary, so let's see who I put the negative!". Let them do things on their own, good grades are theirs and bad ones too. Only in this way, afterwards, can they feel the satisfaction of a job well done and the reward they deserve, or assume a bad result as a result of their lack of personal effort.
Third Cycle of Primary Education
Corresponds to 5th and 6th grade of Primary, We start with 10 and finish with 12 years. For many, the moment of the first effervescence of preadolescence. It is essential that we help them to keep their eyes on the front and clear horizon.
1. Responsibility They are almost exclusively responsible for the results of their work.We do not apologize for teachers' manias, or with nonsense such as "sure that the next-door companion will not let you attend in class".
2. Coherence If you want to get good results that work every day. And if they do not get them, let's analyze with them the possible causes and look for real solutions.
The report card: a second reading
The newsletter can be for us as parents a wonderful tool to get to know our children better. Your tastes, your abilities, your concerns, your future projects. Many times we consider how we can help our children get the best out of themselves. Let's not waste the information that school grades give us.
If nuestr @ hij @ always obtains excellent marks in drawing, surely it is a / a passion of the plastic arts. Let's support him if he really likes it so that he develops that talent to the maximum, whether he's good at languages, or writing, or is an ax in mathematics.
Primary Education: a long career
Compulsory education in Spain extends from 6 to 16 years. It is divided into two stages, namely Primary and Secondary. Primary Education consists of 6 courses organized in 3 cycles of two years each. For its part, Secondary Education comprises four courses.
During Primary Education our children have to learn fundamentally to study and must acquire those instruments that are essential so that tomorrow they can study anything by themselves. And, these magical tools are fundamentally: reading, writing, calculation and geometry.
With these firmly established pillars of knowledge, with adequate study strategies and good daily work habits, our son ensures a high percentage of success in later studies. It is also at this stage that we must empower our children autonomy and personal responsibility, and healthy social skills. All this will turn them into future safe and prepared adolescents to reach the goals that are proposed.
María Jesús SanchoPsychologist Master's Degree in Marriage and Family from the University of Navarra
