Journal Record Personal Growth Skills

Record personal growth skills

Summary: The Personal Growth Skills tab — the last tab on the Journal page — lets you document and assess a child's social and emotional development, typically in preparation for a conference or a progress report. The content comes from a tool called the Dimensions of Observable Growth, which describes a progressive development process for each skill, from least developed to most developed, with the descriptive comment built into each level. To record, open the tab, select the box that best matches each child for a skill, choose the date, and click Record and Close. Entries appear on a child's progress report when the recorded date falls within the report's date range.

Who can do this

Any assigned teacher can record personal growth skills for the children in their classroom. Owners and Administrators can record for any classroom. No special role is required.

Step-by-step

1. Open the Personal Growth Skills tab. On the Journal page, click the Personal Growth Skills tab — it is the last tab.
2. Choose a skill to assess. Pick the skill you want to assess, for example concentration. Its assessment levels are listed from least developed to most developed. See "How the assessment levels work" below.
3. Select the level for each child. Select the box that best matches where each child currently is. The level you choose already contains its descriptive comment.
4. Record in batch (optional). You can select boxes for several children and skills and record them together in one batch.
5. Choose the date. Set the date for the assessment.
6. Record and close. Click Record and Close to save.

How the assessment levels work

Each personal growth skill is assessed on a set of default levels that run from the least developed to the most developed. For concentration, for example, the levels progress from passing from one activity to another without concentration, to sometimes concentrating but easily distracted, to persisting in tasks despite potential distractions, and finally to consistently achieving deep concentration. You choose the level that clearly establishes where the child is. Because the levels describe a developmental progression rather than age-specific ranges, a given level may or may not be age appropriate for a particular child — the goal is simply to capture how that child is developing.

Why the comment is built in

Each assessment level already includes its own descriptive comment. That means you do not have to mark a check and then type a separate narrative note — the assessment itself carries the language that communicates the child's development to parents. This cuts down the work of clearly describing a child's progress while keeping the record meaningful.

Where these entries appear

A recorded personal growth skill is included on a child's progress report when the date you recorded it falls within the progress report's date range. In other words, the entry becomes eligible for the report based on its date — it is not pushed to parents the moment you save it.

A few things worth knowing

• The skill content comes from the Dimensions of Observable Growth and describes a developmental progression, not fixed age expectations.
• Because the comment is embedded in each level, a single selection both records and describes the child's development.
• Recording in batch is the quickest way to assess several children or skills at conference or report time.
• The recorded date determines which progress report the entry lands on, so backdating affects which report shows it.

Related articles

• Editing or deleting a recorded personal growth skill
• Viewing student progress in the Journal
• Recording a lesson from the Journal
• Reports: rosters, activity summaries, and lesson distribution

Watch the video

Here is a short video covering this topic for additional reference.