<p>..."Inconsistent Effort" on your report card?</p>
<p>(They are computerized comments that the teachers can choose from.) This is a foreign language teacher that my son has know for three years and he will be in her honors level class next year. He feels that she knows and likes him. He got a B+ for the year in her class. And yes, he is inconsistent, but that's not limited to this class. Another teacher's comment read "Capable when motivated".</p>
<p>What do you think?</p>
<p>I don’t like either of those options and would look around for a different choice!!! Or I’d look at working hard in the fall to cultivate a senior year teacher…</p>
<p>“Inconsistent” and “Unmotivated” don’t sound like very good recommendations about his performance regardless of whether the teachers like him or not. It’d be better to get a rec from a teacher who has more positive impressions.</p>
<p>If a teacher honestly feels your S is giving “inconsistant effort” why would he ask him/her for a rec? I don’t understand your son’s thinking. Perhaps showing him a recommendation form from the Common App and explaining the purpose of a rec will open his eyes. </p>
<p>Although from what you said, he’s gotten this comment from other teachers as well, so it’s possible his options are limited.</p>
<p>PS I think our school uses the same report card program, with the choices of comments.</p>
<p>Um, no…I would look for “consistently produces high quality work” or at the least “is a pleasure to have in class.”</p>
<p>Edit: and it is unfair to put a teacher on the spot if you have reason to believe they may have reservations about recommending your student. And a comment like that is telegraphing the reservation the teacher has–basically he or she is saying the student lacks the focus or discipline to do work he or she does not find interesting.</p>
<p>S needs to seriously examine which of his teachers will give him the BEST recommendations. If “inconsistent effort” and “capable when motivated” are his BEST, then he has painted himself into a corner that he might be able to get out of.</p>
<p>Personally the best advice I ever got about asking for recommendations was to never push for a recommendation if I heard the slightest inkling of hesitation from the person I was asking.</p>
<p>“And yes, he is inconsistent, but that’s not limited to this class. Another teacher’s comment read “Capable when motivated”.”</p>
<p>Sounds like the teachers comments reflect the truth, and it’s likely that any teacher who writes a recommendation for your S will be writing similar things. It may even be that the teachers who took the time to include comments on his report card like him and care about him more than do teachers who didn’t bother to include such comments. Consequently, it may be that the teachers who wrote the comments will write more detailed recommendations that also reflect your son’s positive qualities. Colleges know that h.s. males may need some maturing, and there may be lots of growth in college and during senior year in h.s. You also should let your S know that having inconsistent effort may cause him to not gain entrance to colleges that otherwise would accept him. Having had myself sons who performed inconsistently and under their potential, I imagine you’ve long been encouraging your S to be a more consistent performer. Your S is old enough to motivate himself, so his inconsistency isn’t your fault. The only additional thing you can do now is let him know that teacher recommendations are supposed to accurately reflect a student’s performance, and he shouldn’t expect that if a teacher likes him, the teacher will write an unrealistically glowing recommendation.</p>
<p>After reading your comments I spoke to my son.</p>
<p>It turns out the teacher actually told him that she was going to focus her recommendation on his leadership abilities. (He is a class officer and next year will be a school officer, and also will be captain of the football team next year. He also has one other big thing that I don’t want to get into detail here about because it’s really specific, but it’s something recognized at a large level.)</p>
<p>He feels (and I have to say I do feel this way too, having known her for three years as his teacher) that she is above board and he also feels will write a solid and positive recommendation, and that her comments on the report card are for me and not for a college.</p>
<p>I guess this will be one of the many decisions he needs to make based on information he has. He has always been very good with people and a good judge of character, so I’m thinking that he knows about this better than I do. (And I’m also thinking that any teacher that knows him well is going to think he doesn’t always put forth a consistent effort…although they may disagree on the reasons for this. So this is a risk with any teacher he asks and maybe what NSM said is right about her taking more time to put a comment like that on the card because she is more interested in him.)</p>
<p>P.S. BTW, he asked for his recs last month before we recieved this last report card.</p>
<p>How can a senior year teacher who has only known you for a few weeks or months write a good recommendation?</p>
<p>RTR–just so you don’t fret too much, one of DS#1’s teacher recs came from someone whose class (Spanish) he had gotten Bs-Cs in. While the teacher knew DS wasn’t particularly good at foreign languages, he knew him very well and thought the world of him intellectually. Wrote a glowing recommendation. Sounds like your son has chosen well.</p>
<p>To lkf–there have been various CC threads on how to ask for/get recommendations for kids who are shy, new to a school, in a large school where teachers don’t know many of the kids, . . . , who for whatever reason really don’t have teachers who know them well. The group wisdom has been for the student to write up a sort of “resume” to hand to the teacher–accomplishments, strengths, . . . If this is not your question, but rather how anyone gets a good recommendation from a senior teacher who doesn’t know the student, most kids ask teachers they’ve had for a year (or more) prior to senior year.</p>
<p>Reality check- you just don’t know what a teacher is going to say about a kid. At least in this situation, you know the drill.</p>
<p>However, having given many a job-related recommendation and performance appraisal in my day, “inconsistent effort” when amplified into a sentence or a paragraph, is either going to turn into, “this kid is a major slacker and goof ball”, or “this kid can be brilliant when the material engages him”. If there are other issues with the application, I would be very careful asking this teacher for a reference, unless there’s nobody else to ask.</p>
<p>RTR, sounds like your son has a good head on his shoulders and made a good decision about this rec after all. Isn’t it weird when we realize our kids are more grown-up than we thought?</p>
<p>A teacher who checked the box for “inconsistent effort” and “capable when motivated” just might think that the student is actually brilliant but unchallenged, and might say in the recommendation that the student is perfect for XYZ College for that reason. It would be good to feel this out before asking for a recommendation from that teacher, but it’s possible.</p>
<p>Maybe I am naive, but I think that what goes on the report card is supposed to motivate the student to perform better, what goes on the rec. letter is supposed to help the student get in, and teachers are very aware of that.
We had an example of this last year when S’s LA teacher wrote a rec. letter for him addressing the need to skip one grade/class in LA when he starts a new school this year. The letter was absolutely faboulos, very different from the conversations her /son/us had during P/T conferences.
During the mentioned meetings she always complained how the son’s discussions are leading the entire class in the wrong direction and making it difficult for her to bring it back to the point/control the class. In the letter she looked at this little trade of his from a completely different direction!
I think that a “normal” teacher will try to help a student with good rec. letter. The problem is when they are using the “wrong” words not even realizing it (like hard working, motivated etc). There was a great discussion about it in the Parents of the class of 2010 thread.</p>
<p>RTR: agree with all the above posters…and in addition, I would recommend that you try to find someone a year ahead who got this teacher to write a rec…just to see the kind of writer of recs he/she is…</p>
<p>When we were going through this, our GC steered us away from a certain teacher b/c she had seen VERY inconsistent rec letters (some negative) in the past few years…not a bad idea to ask the GC who sees these letters (they do not have to sign off on confidentiality like the student does!)…she may have a take on this particular teacher…</p>
<p>Rodney,</p>
<p>I was actually thinking of e-mailing the guidance counselor to ask her what she thought given the report card comment, but didn’t know if I wanted to draw attention to the fact that teachers think he is an inconsistent performer to the GC who also has to write a recommendation and loves my son. What do you think?</p>
<p>My son’s good friend got a rec from this teacher last year, and my son also told me that another kid he knows who is sort of a mess (low GPA, some drug issues though not sure teacher knows about that) has also asked this teacher to write his recommendation.</p>
<p>I’m also thinking I shouldn’t get involved, and e-mailing the guidance counselor would get me involved…</p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>1) definitely ask the kids about the recs; by now, since the admission season is over, they can get copies of them</p>
<p>2) Um, why do you think you shouldn’t get involved? unless the GC has made it clear that he/she doesn’t want you involved, why not?</p>
<p>3) Do not worry about the GC seeing the comment; it is the GC’s job to write glowing recs for all their students and most, if not all, seek out the positives in all kids for their recs…teachers, on the other hand, are not evaluated/examined based on how their students do in the college admissions process…most write very positive recs; but you never know with a teacher…</p>
<p>Honestly, if you really don’t want to be involved with the GC (which is fine) have your son email her and ask her the question…</p>
<p>The question the student needs to ask a teacher is, “Are you willing to write me a GOOD recommendation?” The operative word is good. This serves 2 purposes, 1) it clarifies for the student which teachers they feel they can ask that question of and 2) helps remind the teacher of the purpose of the recommendation (to enhance the application, not to vent or be nit picky).</p>
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<p>Recommendations won’t be “due” until much later in the year (December), so it might be possible to provide consistent effort/motivate oneself for almost a semester’s worth of time before the teacher has to finish the recommendation.</p>
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<p>I think that this is a question that needs to be asked directly to the teacher. In a case like your son’s, you really don’t want to take the chance of having someone write a BAD recommendation. </p>
<p>I take it there is no teacher that can write a letter without some qualifications…</p>
<p>If the answer from the teacher is, “I’ll write a good recommendation, but in all honesty will have to mention in passing XXX”–that could work. But if a teacher will not write you a mostly positive letter, then you really shouldn’t have that teacher write that letter. </p>
<p>Teachers are pretty good at warning you away if they feel they can’t write a recommendation that will help you out. Be sensitive to cues.</p>
<p>Having a recc that mentions a concern that the student needs to work on – such as being more consistent in their efforts – may make the recommendation more believable than a 100% glowing recommendation. I’ve heard, for instance, that Harvard admissions officers take more seriously alumni interviewers’ reports when the interviewers mention something that a student should work on improving. Of course, if a recommendation mentions a serious concern such as the student’s lacking ethics or being a narcissist, that probably would greatly hurt the student’s chances of admission.</p>