Portfolios In The Classroom

Assessment is messy. Day-to-day, in-the-moment assessments not only reveal information that drives future instruction but also offer a comprehensive picture of students’ abilities and dispositions toward learning. As teachers, we might know what this looks and feels like, yet it can be hard to put into action—hence the messiness. Say hello to digital student portfolios—dynamic, digital collections of authentic information from different media, in many forms, and with multiple purposes. Using digital portfolios to capture student thinking and progress allows us to better see our students as readers, writers, and learners—and help students see themselves in the same way! Matt Renwick’s Digital Portfolios in the Classroom is a guide to help teachers sort through, capture, and make sense of the messiness associated with assessment. By shining a spotlight on three types of student portfolios—performance, process, and progress—and how they can be used to assess student work, Renwick helps educators navigate the maze of digital tools and implement the results to drive instruction.

Assessment is messy. Day-to-day, in-the-moment assessments not only reveal information that drives future instruction but also offer a comprehensive picture of students’ abilities and dispositions toward learning. As teachers, we might know what this looks and feels like, yet it can be hard to put into action—hence the messiness. Say hello to digital student portfolios—dynamic, digital collections of authentic information from different media, in many forms, and with multiple purposes. Using digital portfolios to capture student thinking and progress allows us to better see our students as readers, writers, and learners—and help students see themselves in the same way! Matt Renwick’s Digital Portfolios in the Classroom is a guide to help teachers sort through, capture, and make sense of the messiness associated with assessment. By shining a spotlight on three types of student portfolios—performance, process, and progress—and how they can be used to assess student work, Renwick helps educators navigate the maze of digital tools and implement the results to drive instruction.

This volume presents chapters by researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who study the impact of classroom portfolios in the assessment of writing achievement by elementary and middle grade students. The focus throughout the volume is on the tension between classroom assessment and externally mandated testing. It presents the efforts of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to understand the impact of classroom portfolios for the assessment of writing achievement by elementary and middle grade students. Under the auspices of the Center for the Study of Writing, the editors conducted a national survey of exemplary portfolio projects, arranged for a series of "video visits," and held several working conferences. The result of this work is a broad-ranging tale: the aspirations of teachers and administrators to move the machinery of schooling in the direction of more authentic and engaging tasks, the puzzlement of students when they realize that the assignments are real and that the teacher may not have a "right answer" in mind, and the tensions between ivory-tower ideas and everyday classroom practice. Divided into four sections, this research volume: * provides a historical perspective, develops the conceptual framework that serves as a background for many activities described throughout, and discusses numerous practical issues that confront today's researchers and practitioners; * views the phenomenon of writing portfolios through a variety of broadview lenses such as teacher enthusiasm, student reflection, assessment tension, the portfolio as metaphor, and the locus of control; * conveys important conceptual issues with a balance toward pragmatics; and * offers unique insights from the perspective of one individual who serves as scholar, researcher, and teacher.

Situating Portfolios is both reflective and forward-looking, practice-oriented but well-grounded in theory. Kathleen Yancey and Irwin Weiser bring together thirty-one writing teachers from diverse levels of instruction, institutional settings, and regions to create an inviting volume on current practice in portfolio writing assessment. The contributors here reflect on the explosion in portfolio practice over the last decade, why it happened, what comes next; discuss portfolios in hypertext, the web, and other electronic spaces; report on current and new contexts, from emergent literacy to faculty development, in which portfolios now appear; and consider emerging trends and issues that are involving portfolios in teacher assessment, faculty development, and graduate student experience. An energetic volume, Situating Portfolios gathers a wide range of experience and thinking into one stimulating discussion. It's a book that will be of interest to writing teachers and teacher educators at all levels.

This guide is a useful resource for educators who would like to begin using portfolios in the classroom. The three major types of portfolios are working portfolios (collections of work in progress), display portfolios (also called showcase or best works), and assessment portfolios. These types are distinct in theory, but tend to overlap in practice. Once the purpose of the portfolio has been determined, the steps in the portfolio development process are: (1) collection; (2) selection; (3) reflection; and (4) projection. Projection, in the portfolio process, means looking ahead and setting goals for the future. Portfolios are best used in the classroom when they are used as a stimulus for students to produce imaginative and creative work, and when students are encouraged to analyze their own progress and to produce answers to open-ended questions. There are many logistical challenges to the use of portfolios, and it is essential not to undermine their instructional benefits by using them prematurely for high-stakes assessment. Many of the assessment tasks of portfolios can be achieved through well-designed performance tasks. It is the collection and reflection aspects of portfolios that make them such a valuable assessment tool. Some practical suggestions are offered for portfolio management. (Contains 8 figures and 58 references.) (SLD)

The wonderful effect of the portfolio process is the self-awareness that develops when kids generate their own selection criteria, make decisions, and reflect on their work. When students discuss what they want to include in their portfolio and why, and analyze which project or piece of writing meets those criteria, they are creating connections to learning far beyond the scope of traditional forms of assessment. Portfolios also increase learning because students: take responsibility for their learning; actively engage in the learning process; think about their own thinking; grow in confidence and self-esteem; set goals for future learning. Using portfolios enables teachers to be clearer in their presentation of instructional strategies. Using examples from real portfolios and successful classroom experiences, Beth and Joanne take you step-by-step through helping children create portfolios that reveal accurate assessments of their own work. Portfolios in the Classroom features: instructional ideas that extend your use of portfolios; questions throughout the text that guide you to key ideas; real student examples from classrooms where teachers have successfully used portfolios; samples to illustrate discussion of each element in the process; end-of-chapter summaries and a complete bibliography; reproducible forms for you and your students to use; recommendations for using portfolios as a tool for parental involvement. This is a book full of ideas and suggestions that you can put to use immediately in your classroom.

The author discusses his experiences teaching reading and writing, and explains how to structure and run high school classrooms with portfolios as the centerpiece.