Chapter+9

Base group 4 wikispaces 452 section 1


 * Chapter 9**

= Portfolio Assessment =

A **//portfolio//** is a systematic collection of one’s work.
 * They have been used for many professions (artist, architects etc.) and have just recently become a popular phenomenon in the field of education.

__Types of portfolios and their purpose__
//**Classroom portfolios or Working portfolios**//
 * Ongoing collections of students’ work that show their progress and overall improvements, they are not necessarily the students’ “best work” but their “best efforts” to self-improvement. Their purpose is to document student progress by collecting samples of works to show the student, teacher, and parents the students growth (or lack of growth) over time**. **
 * Students continually self evaluate during portfolio creation and portfolio conferences through ongoing review of products
 * Formative assessment becomes integral aspect of the instruction process

//**Show-case portfolios**//
 * Collections of students “best work” used to celebrate students’ accomplishments.
 * Showcase or display portfolios are more often used in the early grades.
 * They often require the student to select their best work and write a thoughtful reflection of that work. This written reflection gives the reader of the portfolio an insight into how the student learns.

// **Large scale portfolios** //
 * Indicator of an educational system’s effectiveness. Their purpose is to evaluate students’ status.
 * A “large-scale portfolio” determines whether students have met the pre-determined criteria. They most often involve a more standardization form of assessment and usually require no or little need for student self-evaluation. Often used at higher grade levels, for example several states have instilled them as criteria for graduation.
 * Judged by regular teachers or centralized by a group of specially trained scorers
 * Costs much more than systems can afford, which is why oflten only classroom teachers are used > reliability goes down

__7 Key ingredients in classroom portfolios__.

 * 1) //Make students “own” their portfolio.//
 * Students need to understand that a portfolio is a collection of their work and not just a grading system used by the teacher.
 * 1) //Decide on what kinds of work samples to collect.//
 * This will depend on the goal of the portfolio, but the more samples of students' work the better.
 * The importance is selecting pieces is to allow for a valid inference to be made about a skill or knowledge you are trying to teach the student. Thus, selected pieces should show progress over time.
 * 1) //Collect and store work samples.//
 * Students need to be the ones making the decision on what to collect, with guidance from teacher when needed.
 * A binder or bin is the best way to store selections.
 * 1) //Select criteria by which to evaluate portfolio work samples.//
 * Teacher and students work together to set the criteria to judge the portfolio.
 * Setting understandable criteria is important for true self-evaluation by students.
 * 1) //Require students to evaluate their own portfolio products continually.//
 * Using the set criteria made up between teacher and students; have students appraise their work.
 * These evaluations should be written down, dated and placed with the portfolio product. They should include strengths and areas of needed improvement.
 * 1) //Schedule and conduct portfolio conferences.//
 * Although they take time, they are necessary to make sure portfolio assessment meets is potential.
 * These conferences should evaluate students work and help them improve their self-evaluation skills.
 * Student preparation for the conference is essential for time management purposes.
 * 1) //Involve parents in the portfolio assessment process.//
 * Let parents know the nature of the portfolio assessment process.
 * Schedule times and encourage students to share their portfolios with their parents.

__“Working Portfolio” vs. Standardized Testing__

 * Allows for individualized assessment of students **vs**. all students assessed the same way.
 * assesses range of achievement **vs**. limited range which may well not be representative of actual skills
 * Addresses improvement, effort & achievement **vs**. simply addressing achievement.
 * Allows for student self-assessment & evaluation **vs**. only teacher judgment of work.
 * Links assessment and teaching **vs**. separating learning, testing, and teaching
 * personal ownership of learning **vs**. outcome teaching
 * time-consuming **vs**. easily administered and scored
 * some content lends itself beautifully to portfolio assessment (e.g.:writing, problem solving) **vs**. content which may resist meaningful inclusion in a portfolio or may require too much effort to be carried out

__**What to remember:**__
 * It is important to make collections and appraisals of students’ work a central part of the instructional program and not a thoughtless collection of students' work just to show that "good things are going on in the classroom".
 * Portfolio of students' work should be something approached by both the teacher and the student.
 * **The real payoff is that ongoing reviews of products not intended to impress anyone nurture students' self-evaluation capabilities. S****elf-evaluation is important if we want to cultivate cognitive independece and real learning.**

Questions:

 * 1) Can you think of subjects that may not lend themselves for inclusion into portfolio assessment? Why?
 * 2) Personalized assessment takes a huge amount of one-on-one time with students. How can a teacher make sure not to neglect the rest of the class during one-on-one assessments?
 * 3) Would it be valid if a teacher choose only one subject for portfolio assessment and kept traditional assessment methods for all other classes? Why/why not?

Base group 4 wikispaces 452 section 1