QUESTION: Elementary Student Portfolios

[Phyllis Ain]

Sorry Everyone!  I sent this request by email, when I really meant to start a discussion.

I am a resource teacher at an elementary school that requires teachers and students to set up, update, and keep student portfolios.  Ideally, the process will encourage so students to reflect on their learning, develop their analytical and critical-thinking skills, and hone their writing abilities.

In practice, however, the project takes up a huge amount of time in the lower grades where students are having difficulty selecting pieces for inclusion, reflecting, and generally concentrating.  Does anyone have suggestions for using and maintaining student portfolios in the lower grades?  Would appreciate input.

[Christine Henke Mueller]

I teach fourth grade and keep, with my students, a writing portfolio. This portfolio is cumulative (a traveling portfolio) over the student's career at my school. The "traveling portfolio" is a six-pocket folder with a spiral-bound edge.  At the beginning of the year we look back over previous year's writings and set goals which are placed in their writing folder.  I have them keep every piece of published writing, handwritten or otherwise, in an "in-class file folder" during the school year.  In addition to regular writing conferences, we meet formally three times a school year to conference about goals and to reflect on the writing pieces that are in their file folder.  At the final conference we go over the year's writings and select three that will go into their "traveling portfolio". Exit slips for each formal writing piece, guided peer conferences, author-shares with peer reviews, as well as teacher modeling of my own writing, are all used throughout the year to help students reflect on their writing. The writing folder (which is a four-pocket folder that with pockets for: pre-writing, draft, revision and final copy materials), an in-class file folder, and a traveling six-pocket folder are used to physically manage the portfolio.  Much is done the same in our third grade classrooms, but I can imagine that this would become more teacher directed and controlled as you go into the lower primes.

[Phyllis Ain]

Thanks.  I imagine that these folders  and the actual traveling portfolio are pre-ordered and made available to each student at the start of the student's  entry into the school?  Kids enroll at different grades and our enrollment is somewhat transitory since our student population is largely comprised of the children of local residents, the children of guest workers (largely from the Philippenes), children from Micronesia, children from other Asian countries (Korea, Japan, and China), all of whom at times transition between our and other schools and islands. Many students DO complete the entire 1-6 curriculum, however, and it would really help teachers and students to turn these folders over to the teacher who will be with them the next year.  Thanks again.

[Marcy Prager]

Hi Phyllis.  This year I am teaching second grade.  Every child has a "blue" "Writing Folder."  All written work is kept in this folder all year.  There is an "unfinished" and "finished" pocket.  The newest pieces are always on top.  About once every two months, students take out their folders and browse through their work.  They have to "notice" and "tell" how their writing has improved.  Most students notice their fine motor control, their use of mechanics, their expanded ideas, their use of better words, etc.  I also send these home to parents to ask them what they notice.  This works as an authentic portfolio.  

 

I also have students "publish" a lot of writing.  Coyote trickster tales, a chapter book about Ghana, focusing on the cultural aspects of the Asanti and the Ewe people, non-fiction magazines, etc.  When books are "published," the work stays together nicely and become not only projects, but formative assessments.  

 

For conferences, I collect math work to show parents.  I have the writing folders.  Students write their poetry in blank poetry books.  The Science Notebooks are authentic notebooks that show the Heuristic Approach how children think and learn through experimenting, reading, etc.  

 

When children have color-coded notebooks to record their work, they are easily accessible in the desks, and they "contain" the work in that subject area. 

 

Hope this helps.  When we clean out desks weekly, we make sure if there are any extra papers hanging around, they are imported to the right folder.  

[Phyllis Ain]

Our third grade teachers tell me that at least quarterly, students are provided with work to review and are asked  for each content area, to choose 2 pieces that they really like and 2 they need to improve or on which they wish they had done better.  For each content area, they are asked to reflect on their choices, presumably, according to some rubric or criteria list.

I think it may be overwhelming to present all of the material at the end of a quarter.  For me, it makes more sense to work on portfolios weekly, alternating between content areas, and keeping the rest of the student work in an ongoing "collection" folder that they may also revisit at times during the quarter.  The concept of periodic reflection to me is invaluable, not only because of goal-setting and progress-monitoring, but because it provides real, hard evidence of how the students sees his or her performance and allows students to use these materials to expand, review, revisit, and extend areas of learning.  The problem is the amount of time it takes if teachers do this just once a quarter.  With third graders, this activity could take days.  Our schools are so centered on teaching so many standards and benchmarks that it leaves little time for this part of learning (a part that I find among the most important).  Thanks for your ideas.

It is Christmas morning here in the Northern Marianas (where I teach, on the "other side of the world.")  Thanks for your  comments

[Phyllis Ain]

Thanks for your thoughts and the files.  The emphasis on  limiting  entries and non-perfection/evolution is perfect.  The advice on modeling is likewise greatly appreciated.

[Marcy Prager]

There are lots of good folders for the young students at reallygoodstuff.com.  The Boomerang homework folder has pockets for "stay at home," for "parents," "homework," "reminders," etc.

 

This is where I buy my blue writing folders as well.  They are laminated and stay in good shape throughout the year.  These are not portfolio folders, per se, but I use them as such.

 

Great ideas, everyone!  Elizabeth, I love your reflective questions!  I use writing reflective questions for both students and parents as they look through their work together.

[Phyllis Ain]

thanks for the folder source.

When I was teaching sixth grade, I focused on social studies and did a lot with interactive notebooks.  Like portfolios, these were great tools for periodic reflection, assessment, and student-parent conferences.  I sent them home regularly with forms for parent review and input.  My students worked really hard on these notebooks because they provided a range of assignment choices, opportunities to revise and reflect on progress, and contained individualized teacher comments and notes to which students could respond.  There has been much written about the use of these tools and their effect on student learning in the content areas such as social studies and science.  I loved using them.  They took a lot of time, but were worth it.