Portfolio presentation

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Getting Started with Effective Student Working
Portfolios
Roger Farr Indiana University
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Problem Solving Across the Curriculum

• Reading
• Writing
• Thinking
• Content Knowledge

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Portfolios for Assessment and Instruction
To understand language processes, we must...

• Infer process from products
• Observe behavior and infer process
• Ask students to discuss processes

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Portfolio Holders

• Selected/developed by students
• Personalized by each student
• Sturdy enough to withstand frequent handling
• Large enough to help art work, tapes, and other
  materials

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To be effective portfolio Assessment must...

• Protect a sense of child ownership
• Emphasize student responsibility
• Focus on purposes for contents
• Emphasize communication and ideas over mechanics

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To be effective portfolio Assessment must...

• Integrate language behaviors
• Include outside of school activities
• Emphasize student assessment
• Focus on ideas--especially cross-discipline
  projects

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To be effective portfolio Assessment must...

• Integrate language behaviors
• Include outside of school activities
• Emphasize student assessment
• Focus on ideas--especially cross-discipline
  projects

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Portfolio Implementation
Probably Not
Good Ideas

• Only finished work
• Limit number of items
• Pass on the whole portfolio
• Only best work
• Grade the portfolio

• Part of instruction
• Include teacher responses
• Pass on some show pieces
• Include reading/writing ideas

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Portfolio Assessment
Student evaluation of...

• product
• process

Teacher evaluation of...

• process
• product

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Portfolios should be...

• Meaningful collections of a students reading and
  writing products, ideas, and processes.

• The basis for student-teacher conferences of
  ideas, progress and goals.

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So you want to do portfolios...
What goes in?
Who puts it there?
?
?
?
How is it looked at --and why?
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Rogers Basic Rules for Portfolios...
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Rogers Basic Rules for Portfolios...
Total school commitment
Belongs to the student (decorate, out to use)
Includes ideas, and finished/ unfinished stuff
Working portfolios before show portfolios
Individual conferences (4X a year)
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So what goes in a portfolio?
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So what goes in a portfolio?
Student
Stuff I think is neat and want to share with my
teacher. Stuff the teacher tells me to keep. The
ideas and thoughts I have about my reading and
writing.
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So what goes in a portfolio?
Teacher
Whats relevant to reading and writing
development Examples of change, progress, and
development What the students want to share
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Basics for every portfolio...
Benchmark assessments Free choice (reading and
writing--drafts, notes, finished/unfinished) Readi
ng/writing response logs (connections)
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Basics for every portfolio...
Student reflections Students organization
plan Student and teacher notes
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...other stuff that can be kept in a portfolio...
Newspaper, magazine articles Pictures about
favorite stories Notes about favorite
authors Ideas for projects First drafts, notes,
pictures Letters, notes from others
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...other stuff that can be kept in a portfolio...
Stuff from home Parents portfolio notes Graphic
organizers Editing ideas Letters to/from
authors Lists of neat writing ideas
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Types of conferences
Roving during class Parent/student Student/student
Teacher/student/parent Teacher/student
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Classroom Teacher/Student Conferences

• Scheduled (Oct. 10, Dec. 10., Feb. 10, Apr. 10)
• Planned--student focus on content teacher plans
  for strategies questions
• Discussion emphasizes ideas and content of
  reading and writing

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Teacher/Student Conferences

• Portfolio materials selected by student and
  student handles materials
• Teacher is invited to read and discuss
• Student and teacher take notes at the end
• Subsequent conferences begin with notes from
  prior conference

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Notes for teachers during conferences

• Listen and reinforce
• Dont evaluate portfolios--report card grades or
  otherwise
• Get students to talk about ideas and interests
  expressed through reading and writing
• Lead discussion so you find out about strategies,
  e.g..... visualize, predict, background, etc.....

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Conference Notes
Purpose?
What do I know?
Predict before?
Predict during?
Make sense?
Make changes?
Get help?
Picture?
Teachers Notes
Students Notes
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What do I want to know (read) and what do I want
to say (write)?
What do I already know to help me read
(background) and write (ideas)?
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Do I think about the ideas I am going to read
about and what I want to write?
Do I think about what I am going to say next in
what am I writing and do I predict in reading?
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Do I picture the story in my head when when I am
reading and writing?
Do I think about whether the things I am reading
about and what I am writing make sense?
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Do I make changes by revising when I write and
rereading when I read?
Do I get help with my reading and writing when I
need it--dictionaries, friends, books, and the
teacher?
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Show Portfolios Remembrance

• involves parents
• emphasizes school/home connection
• highlights what teachers think is important
• provides a look at development over time

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Show Portfolios Pass-on

• manila folders to pass on
• reading/writing logs
• student/teacher notes
• three things I want to tell the
• next years teacher about me

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Show Portfolios Product Assessment

• selected by the teacher
• emphasizes goals of instruction
• annotated and dated (if possible)
• variety of samples
• teacher summary statement

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Portfolios Getting Started

• start in the lower grades
• start with a few students at a time
• establish student ownership and
• responsibility
• display sample portfolios

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Portfolios Getting Started

• emphasize the purpose (conferences)
• help students with collecting
• focus on ideas (projects)
• have one of your own

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Portfolios Difficulties

• conferences that focus on strategies
• helping students become managers
• finding time for conferences
• helping students become
• self- assessors

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Portfolios Difficulties

• where to keep the portfolios so
• students can use them every day
• losing materials and portfolios
• parents want to see papers
• portfolios and grades

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Portfolios and Grades

• dont grade portfolios for report
• card grades
• develop show portfolios
• for product assessment

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Portfolios and Grades

• use sample portfolios as part of
• an evaluation report
• benchmark assessments
• as one factor in grading

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Ordering Materials

• Portfolio and Performance Assessment by Roger
  Farr and Bruce Tone. Call 1-800-782-4479. The
  ISBN number is 0-15-500485-9. The publisher is
  Harcourt Brace, College Publishers.

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Ordering Materials

• Turtles House and similar performance
  assessments can be purchased from The
  Psychological Corporation. Call 1-800-228-0952
  and ask for information about the LAPA (Language
  Arts Performance Assessments).

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Ordering Materials

• Bugs Beware and Mushroom in the Rain are
  end-of-unit assessments in Treasury or
  Literature, an integrated Language Arts Program
  published by Harcourt Brace, School Publishers.