Activity 10.

3 Trying a New Portfolio Option with Students

After reading the section “Tracking and Reflecting on Learning with Portfolios,” work independently or

with a colleague complete the following activity. You may wish to use the Portfolio Planning Form to

keep track of your decisions. (You don’t have to fill in both Activity 10.3 and the Portfolio Planning

Form—submit either one for this assignment.)

1. Determine the kind of portfolio to establish in your classroom. Kinds of portfolios are

summarized in Figure 10.3 on page 374.

a. I would like to do an Achievement Status portfolio in my classes.

2. Decide the length of time students will keep the portfolio.

a. I would have the students keep the portfolio for one grading period.

3. Determine what decisions students will make in creating the portfolio. Refer to Figure 10.4 on

page 380 for suggestions.

a. As the teacher, I will provide the learning targets to the students and together we will

determine what type of assignments and how many should be entered. We will also will

work through which assignments the student has completed are indicative of mastery level

work to be included in the portfolio. Based on the assignments that are entered, the students

will make reflections on their work.

4. Review the section, “Portfolio Contents—Focus on Learning Targets” on pages 378 through 385.

Determine the scope of learning targets to be represented in the portfolio, or determine learning

targets in conjunction with students.

a. Since this is an Achievement Portfolio, students will include artifacts that show mastery-

level work for the learning outcomes presented. This should include formative and

summative work that the student has completed in which they have shown that they have

understood and mastered the learning targets. Depending on each student, the number of

artifacts for each target may be different or include different artifacts.

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5. Identify the artifacts or types of artifacts that will go into the portfolio, either by yourself or with

students.

a. For the Achievement Status portfolio, together with the students, I will help them to

determine what work is ready to be put in the portfolio and what is not. In the portfolio,

formative work including practice assignments that show mastery of the learning target and

summative assessments in which the students demonstrated their mastery will be included.

This might also include lab reports if they are present in that unit of study.

6. Plan for individual work sample annotations. What kinds of comments will students make on

each piece?

a. Students should look over each artifact in the portfolio and reflect on their learning. They

should annotate what they found to be the most key aspect of the assignment, why that key

aspect is important to the learning target and to them as a learner, and describe their growth

as they worked through the assignment and learning target.

7. Consider making student goal setting a part of the portfolio process, either along the way or at

the conclusion.

a. Goal setting would be very important when setting up this type of portfolio because students

will be entering mastery-level work to show achievement, and without setting learning goals

they may not reach mastery-level of the outcomes. Each student should set a SMART goal

before beginning the unit for each outcome and refer to the goals regularly so that they can

chart where they are in the learning process. By doing this from the beginning, students can

have a more clear idea of what work should be included and what work is showing

progression of their learning but ultimately, is not ready for the Achievement Status

portfolio.

8. Plan an opportunity for students to review and reflect on the contents of the portfolio as a whole.

a. As students entered artifacts into their portfolio, they are communicating mastery of the

learning outcome. They should review the work before adding it to the portfolio to ensure

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 that the work should be included and reflect on their assignments to better understand their

learning progression. One student might mastery the outcome on the first day it is presented,

but another student may need more time and practice before they have mastered the target.

This is all information the students should reflect on upon entering work into the portfolio.

9. Determine what form students will use to reflect on the portfolio as a whole.

a. Students should reflect by written responses to the following prompts;

i. What did I learn and how did I learn it?

ii. What learning targets for this unit have I mastered?

iii. What are my strengths? What do I still need to work on?

iv. What learning targets, if any, do I still need to master?

v. What would I change about what I did?

10. Decide how, with whom, and when students will share their portfolios.

a. Students should share their portfolios with their parents, guardians, family members, other

teachers, and could keep them to share with scholarship or program selection committees if

interviewing for a science-related program or scholarship.

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 Portfolio Planning Form

Kind of portfolio:

Duration:

Who will make which decisions:

Learning targets to be represented

Artifacts to be included

Type of individual work sample annotations

Student goal-setting component, if any

When students will review and reflect on the contents

What form student reflection will take

How students will share their portfolios, with whom, and when