The Portfolio Process
Page 1 of 2
The process of facilitating successful student portfolios can be broken into four steps:
- collection
- selection
- reflection
- connection
Collection
Although the first step, collection, is straight-forward, it is not always an easy step to facilitate successfully. It simply requires students to collect and store all of their work. Three challenges at this step are common.
One, most students and many teachers are not accustomed to documenting and saving all class work. Two, there is seldom an obvious place to put the work as it is collected, particularly when artwork or lab work is involved. And three, it is not always obvious how to generate artifacts from things like field trips, community service projects, jobs, and sports. The key skill in this step is to get students accustomed to collecting and documenting whenever possible..
Selection
How one facilitates the second step, selection, depends on the kind of portfolio (process or product oriented) and to what degree a teacher stipulates portfolio requirements. In this step, students will go through the work they collected and select the artifacts for their portfolio. This may be done by the student alone, with peers, and/or with the teacher. Many characteristics about the curriculum come to light in this step, particularly the nature of the work students are doing in class. For instance, if all students have to show are quizzes and tests, the portfolio will be rendered almost meaningless by failing to shed light on anything other than a student's ability to take exams. If, however, students have a more diverse set of work such as audio/video recordings, artwork, projects, journals, computer work, homework, compositions, etc., as well as exams, the portfolio will come to life. In this manner, portfolios provide a great deal of motivation to diversify approaches to teaching and learning.
2008 Summer Olympics
Celebrate this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing, China, with our resources, activities, and lessons.
Teaching about Natural Disasters
The world has suffered two natural disasters this May — Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar and the earthquake in China. These tragedies may have your students wondering why such large catastrophes occur. We have resources to help you explain earthquakes and cyclones, and for dealing with the subjects of death and crisis with your class.
July Events
Find educational activities for every day in July. Take a look at our Summer Activities Slideshow for our favorite summer-themed activities, lessons, and printables.
Sign up for our Great Stuff for Teachers newsletter to keep up-to-date on all of our seasonal lessons and printables.
New Customizable Printables
Easily create personalized hall and office passes or teacher stationary with our customizable classroom passes and notes. Prepare for substitute teachers, field trips, parent-teacher conferences, and more with our customizable charts and forms.
Drama Resources
Explore our drama resources – from Shakespearean plays to The Miracle Worker to Readers Theater – to widen your curricular focus. Students will enjoy the change of pace that putting on a classroom play will bring!
ADD/ADHD Resources
From frequently asked questions to assessment accommodations, these articles and resources will help you to deal with the special nature of students with ADD/ADHD.
