Student Portfolios—Beyond the Scrapbook
Student Portfolios
Beyond the Scrapbook
Starting
What Exploring
are student portfolios and what information about student learning is meaningful and useful?
This section contains:
· Background information/Workshop Goals
· Essential and Guiding Questions
· Activity Sheets for Opening Activities
Acknowledgements
The Alberta Teachers' Association would like to acknowledge contributions made to the development of this workshop by Carolyn Mathew, Edmonton Public Schools and The Alberta Assessment Consortium.
INTRODUCTION
This workshop is based on current assessment for learning research which says student achievement is enhanced when they are fully involved in a process that established evaluation criteria (Davies, 2002, Black and William, 2001, Wolfe, 2001). Participants will be encouraged to rethink traditional approaches to student portfolio in light of current research. It asks them to move beyond the conception of portfolios as scrapbooks or collections of evidence not necessarily connected to learning outcomes, pre-specified criteria and teacher directed.
Well designed student portfolios provide meaningful and authentic ways for students to improve achievement highlight aspects of their work and provide a useful tool to discuss student achievement with both teachers and parents.
The workshop will challenge teachers to consider the various ways portfolios can be used to organize and collect evidence of student learning. It provides opportunities for teachers to critically examine their current practices and consider new ways to engage in performance assessment practices. The workshop provides opportunities for teachers to examine four types of portfolios—growth, showcase, life skills and electronic and see how they are used in various situations. In a full-day workshop, they will have the opportunity to design and share their portfolio assignments.
Goals of the Workshop
1. Review key principles related to assessment for learning
2. Understand the value of student portfolios in organizing, collecting and assessing student work
3. Provide specific approaches and strategies to develop, implement and conference student portfolios
Essential Question
How can assessment for learning principles be realized through student portfolio development?
Guiding Questions
This session will provide responses to these guiding questions:
1. What are student portfolios and what information about student learning is meaningful and useful?
Why is a portfolio an effective system for managing diverse information about student learning?
This section contains:
· Assessment for Learning research
· Activity Sheets for Learning Activities
· Types of Portfolios - Conceptual Model
· Growth Portfolios – information, tips, cards
· Showcase/Celebration Portfolios
· Life/Works Skills Portfolios - sample
· Electronic Portfolios
· Organizing Portfolios
ey Factors in Assessment for Learning
Key Factor / How specifically might a studentportfolio meet this factor?
1 / Provides effective feedback to students
2 / Actively involves students in their own learning
3 / Helps teachers adjust practices to take account of the results of assessment
4 / Recognizes the profound influence of assessment on motivation and self-esteem
5 / Acknowledges the need for students to be able to assess their work and understand how to improve
Strategies that focus on learning
Strategies that focus on learning / What am I already doing?1 / involves sharing goals (learner outcomes) with students
2 / involve students in setting and using criteria
3 / engage students in self-assessment
4 / Involves students in self-reflection
5 / Provides specific, descriptive feedback
6 / Ensure that students present evidence of learning in relation to learning outcomes
Types of Portfolios
Growth Portfolios
Shows growth or progress over time based on learning targets.
• Focuses on learning, not just achievement
• Includes a range of student’s best, most challenging and interesting work
• Shows progress over time
• Provides a location for student voice through self-reflection
• The key point is that a learner is able to monitor growth over time of clear learning goals/targets.
Growth Portfolios—Before and After Proof
Students look at their learning over time by selecting specific examples that show evident of their growth during the term.
Thanks to Kenneth Koch
Celebration/Showcase
These highlight students’ accomplishments by presenting their best work related to a specific learning target. Students determine which pieces will be included based on criteria they helped to establish.
From Making Classroom Assessment Work (2nd Ed) by Anne Davies ©2007
Life/Work Skills
More on Skills or Career Transition Portfolios
A skills or career portfolio is a carefully organized collection of evidence which illustrates one’s skills, abilities and talents. It shows suitability for a particular job or position based on criteria.
Compiling a life skills/work portfolio helps students to identify, select and organize evidence of skills that will assist them in their transition from school to post-secondary or vocational education.
For studeThe portfolio is an immediately available summary of abilities and accomplishments. In a world of competitive selection for education, training and employment, thecommunication. It is a story, a narrative, told from the student's perspective."
Journey
"Finally, we suggest students view their portfolios as a journey into knowing and that they write a narrative describing that journey. Our goal is to help students tell their story, a story that has a happy ending."
Laboratory
· "The portfolio is a valuable marketing tool.
· For employers, the portfolio provides evidence of essential work skills which will aid in the selection of potential employees.
· For educators, the portfolio will showcase to the rest of the community many of the skills that schools have helped engender in their students.
Use skills portfolios to highlight personal and technical skills.
Students acquire a wide range of skills through school, community, home and work:
School
o Communication skills
o Academic knowledge
o Leadership and organizational skills
o Career and technology studies
o Sports and recreation programs
Community
o Involvement in organizations and clubs
Home
o Responsibilities associated with siblings, chores and home based businesses
Work/Volunteer Work
Types of Portfolios
E-Portfolio as Kaleidoscopic Process: Reflective Viewlaboratory where students construct meaning from Self to Global Society
Just as a kaleidoscope needs light to view the endless possibilities of visual combinations of the coloured glass, a e-portfolio provides the illumination for the learner to view the endless possibilities of the potential views and connections of her/his learningtheir accumulated experience from self to global society.."
How does this model illustrate the interrelationships among various types of portfolios?
Organizing Portfolios
Containers for collecting and organizing evidence of learning
· pizza boxes
· folders with twin or quadruple pockets
· plastic tote boxes with lids
· legal size folders with folded, stapled bottoms
· empty laundry detergent or cereal boxes
· binders with clear plastic pockets or folders
· accordion files
· notebooks
· class or individual websites or software program such as ePEARL, Notetaker or Inspiration.
Test
Portfolios that are composed of written reflections (a form of an essay) and products representative of the candidate’s skills, and performance, fall under a professionally acceptable definition of “test.”
Toothbrush
A habit of mind, something you do every day.
Caterpillar (or Acorn or Seed)
An emerging form undergoing metamorphosis through personal growth…from a caterpillar to a butterfly; from an acorn to a tree; from a seed to a flower or plant.
compiled by Helen C. Barrett, Ph.D.
http://electronicportfolios.org/metaphors.html
Jay Mctighe’s Metaphor
Think of student portfolios as photo albums instead of looking at student work as a series of unrelated snapshots. Sound assessment requires multiple sources of evidence, collected over time.
Alberta Assessment Consortium
A portfolio organizes varied evidence of student learning over time and collectively paints a reliable and valid picture of student achievement of learning outcomes.
Effective communication of student learning depends upon purposeful reporting of meaningful information.
Anne Davies says
“that learners need to collect and organize evidence of their learning in relation to a learning outcome. This ensures accountability in that they know they and their parents know they are learning. Portfolios, when properly used, provide an opportunity to learn how to think, organize and make choices or judgments. They invite reflection and open possibilities for dialogue.”
Fisher and Frey, 2007
A portfolio is a collection of items intended to reflect a body of work. Educational portfolios are designed to reflect a student’s process of learning (Tierney, 1998). They are not meant to serve as a scrapbook of random ephemera gather during the school year. At their best, they can provide another way to check for understanding. However, this requires that the student choose the evidence that best illustrates his or her cognitive processes (Frey and Hiebert, 2003).
Identify the common characteristics in the above definitions/metaphors.
Activity A.1.4 Twenty (Ten Questions)
What is your interest in using student portfolios?
What is your knowledge level regarding student portfolio?
1 2 3 4 5
What is your main learning goal for this session?
At the end of the workshop, return to this page and jot down the answer to your question.
Participant Portfolio p 1