How Can Portfolios Be Evaluated?

-
According to Paulson, Paulson and Meyer, (1991, p. 63): "Portfolios offer a way of assessing student learning that is different than traditional methods. Portfolio assessment provides the teacher and students an opportunity to observe students in a broader context: taking risks, developing creative solutions, and learning to make judgments about their own performances."

In order for thoughtful evaluation to take place, teachers must have multiple scoring strategies to evaluate students' progress. Criteria for a finished portfolio might include several of the following:
  • Thoughtfulness (including evidence of students' monitoring of their own comprehension, meta-cognitive reflection, and productive habits of mind).
  • Growth and development in relationship to key curriculum expectancies and indicators.
  • Understanding and application of key processes.
  • Completeness, correctness, and appropriateness of products and processes presented in the portfolio.
  • Diversity of entries (e.g., use of multiple formats to demonstrate achievement of designated performance standards).
It is especially important for teachers and students to work together to prioritize those criteria that will be used as a basis for assessing and evaluating student progress, both formatively (i.e., throughout an instructional time period) and summatively (i.e., as part of a culminating project, activity, or related assessment to determine the extent to which identified curricular expectancies, indicators, and standards have been achieved).

As the school year progresses, students and teacher can work together to identify especially significant or important artifacts and processes to be captured in the portfolio. Additionally, they can work collaboratively to determine grades or scores to be assigned. Rubrics, rules, and scoring keys can be designed for a variety of portfolio components. In addition, letter grades might also be assigned, where appropriate. Finally, some for of oral discussion or investigation should be included as part of the summative evaluation process. This component should involve the student, teacher, and if possible, a panel of reviewers in a thoughtful exploration of the portfolio components, students' decision-making and evaluation processes related to artifact selection, and other relevant issues.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Characteristics of an Effective Portfolio

-
Portfolio assessment is a multi-faceted process characterized by the following recurrent qualities: It is continuous and ongoing, providing both formative (i.e., ongoing) and summative (i.e., culminating) opportunities for monitoring students' progress toward achieving essential outcomes. It is multidimensional, i.e., reflecting a wide variety of artifacts and processes reflecting various aspects of students' learning process(es). It provides for collaborative reflection, including ways for students to reflect about their own thinking processes and meta-cognitive introspection as they monitor their own comprehension, reflect upon their approaches to problem-solving and decision-making, and observe their emerging understanding of subjects and skills. Although approaches to portfolio development may vary, all of the major research and literature on portfolios reinforce the following characteristics: They clearly reflect stated learner outcomes identified in the core or es...
Read more

How to Teach a Retelling Reading Strategy for Primary Students

-
Retelling is a comprehension strategy by which a student describes the events of a story. Primary students often struggle with the concept of retelling, choosing instead to repeat what they most recently read, rather than expressing a linear sequence of events. If your emergent reader struggles with this concept, try a tested strategy. Model, Model, Model First, and most importantly, model what you want to hear from your student. After reading together, retell the main events in the story to your child. Hearing how a retelling should sound is the first step in creating a reader who can apply what she has heard. The 5 W's Focus on the who, what, when, where and why of the story. For early readers, assign each of their fingers one of the 5 W’s and have them tick down a finger as they talk about that aspect of the story. When all five fingers are down, their retelling should be complete. First, Next, Then, Last Encourage the student to use the key words first, next, then a...
Read more

The Corners of Teaching Strategy

-
The corners of teaching strategy can be easily adapted to any grade level and subject. It takes little teacher preparation yet results in motivated, engaged students. The strategy involves students moving to one of the four classroom corners to convey their feelings about a topic. It can be designed to take only several minutes of class or up to an entire session. Memorable and valuable class discussions are often the result of the four corners strategy. Visible Opinion Sharing The corners is a teaching strategy that works well to engage all students in conversations about controversial topics. For example, in a reading class you can ask questions about a character’s actions in a novel. Math students can debate if students should be able to use calculators. Science students can discuss the use of alternative forms of energy. While in social studies, students can debate the various forms of government. To prepare, write statements in a definitive manner. For example, nuclear energ...
Read more