What are you supposed to write when they send their books home and ask for comments?

[HerBeatitudeLittleBella]

?????

Hnmm? Very nice??? What?

How about... we are very pleased with the progress Johnny is making, and hope he will continue to flourish under Mrs Bloggs' guidance?

"We are pleased with the progress little Beatitude has made this year. Thank you"

"These are the wrong books - we are not surprised as you do not appear to have noticed that Little Beatitude is in your class this year"

"These books confirm our suspicions that Little Beatitude has made no progress at all in your class - better luck next year"

"Thank you for being a fab teacher - Little Beatitude has come on by leaps and bounds and has had a wonderful time. He particularly enjoyed helping to look after the tadpoles. And he has finally learned his tables!"

Or some permutation on the above!

Depending on age, write whatever you noticed

whether or not they read the book
whether they found it interesting
whether they found it easy of difficult
could they follow the story - eg would they be able to recount it
did they read with expression
did they understand how characters might be feeling
anything particular eg ds1 sometimes missed out words so I have to tell him to slow down.

ds1 is now in Y2 and teacher has asked me to question him with inference questions and check his comprehension eg how do you think X might be feeling, why did he say/do that?

Oh, sorry, do you mean reading books or work books?

"Ds very much enjoys taking time away from reading the Complete works of Shakespeare to find out the latest happenings in the world of Biff, Kipper and Floppy."

"Do you think that War and Peace is suitable as a chapter book or is it a bit too simplistic?"

beware - I once made a teeny tiny criticism of the books dd1 was bringing home - and got a very bad tempered essay back. So I now just stick to "read it and [enjoyed][found x difficult]" and keep it very brief.

LOL at some of these.

It's her exercise books.

It feels like a minefield - why do they ask me to comment, what am I supposed to say that isn't either bland, confrontational, pointless or illiterate?

Am tempted to write "It's all Greek to me".

But I suspect that would not be suitable.

oh gosh it was exercise books , that is how I feel when at Parents' Evening we are expected to write comments in front of the teacher - I usually write "very pleased with progress".

Ds only has reading books, the exercise books don't leave the classroom so we only see them at parents' evenings. In his reading book I usually write that 'X read book easily' or 'read quickly' or 'we have these stories and X knows them very well' orany other combination of words to try and get more interesting reading matter sent home.

When I see X's exercise books it is usually verbal comments along the lines of 'he's completely made up that story', 'no we don't have a caravan', 'no he doesn't have any brothers/sisters/horse' etc.

I liken comments to a yo yo.............

week one - 'Thanks for this - Johnny thoroughly enjoyed reading this book AGAIN'

week 2 - (book way too hard clearly by way of punishment for daring to point out that teacher hasn't noticed child's had book before)'think some of the metaphors were a bit lost on him' given War & Peace type novel

week 3 - back to Janet & John...

and so it goes on.

I think it's all a bit of a power trip by the teacher. Best to just smile, say something nice and bland, whatever the apprpriacy of the book & child's understanding/ not, and let them read their own stuff.

LOL at some of these.
I've never been asked to comment in exercise books, but I'd probably write
ds1 found this easy/hard/pointless...
he particularly enjoyed/disliked/dismissed...
he managed to complete this within 10minutes/1 hour/I did it!

unfortunately, my DS's weekly feedback book is the communication back and forth between myself and teacher about DS's behaviour seems to be the only way I can keep an eye on how his behaviour is going, in between parent's evenings. I also write a little on how he got on with homework

From bitter experience with a previous school I am now very careful what I write in comment books (and I din't write anything horrid at all!)

Plus, it's a PITA thinking of comments. From helping out in school I know that, unless there is an issue under discussion then ALL they need to know is has your child finished the book or not. I write "finished", or "next page....." and initial it.

At my DC's school they just want to know that you have heard them read so I usually write "read p.1-22" or "read whole book" then date it and add one of those smiley faces (school's request) if they enjoyed it. Also let them know if your DC is having a particular problem or the level is not challenging enough.

In DTS reading books, I mention
if they read it fluently or not,
which words they had difficulty sounding out,
if they comprehended the meaning,
whether they enjoyed it or if they found it boring
I also mention other books that we read from the home library.