definitions+and+educationalpaper


 * [[file:techproject goals.htm]]**

=Why Use a Portfolio?=

In this new era of performance assessment related to the monitoring of students' mastery of a core curriculum, portfolios can enhance the assessment process by revealing a range of skills and understandings one students' parts; support instructional goals; reflect change and growth over a period of time; encourage student, teacher, and parent reflection; and provide for continuity in education from one year to the next. Instructors can use them for a variety of specific purposes, including:


 * Encouraging self-directed learning.
 * Enlarging the view of what is learned.
 * Fostering learning about learning.
 * Demonstrating progress toward identified outcomes.
 * Creating an intersection for instruction and assessment.
 * Providing a way for students to value themselves as learners.
 * Offering opportunities for peer-supported growth.

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, metacognitive 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).

From Prince Georges County schools in Maryland [|http://www.pgcps.pg.k12.md.us/~elc/portfolio.html]

Portfolios are students' own story of what they know. They are Opinion backed by fact They are the story of knowing things, selves about an audience. Helen Barrett

Portfolios are fundamentally for the students. A good portfolio sounds like the student, is created around his or her own learning goals, and shows growth over time in areas important to the student. Student and school goals are integrated as the student collects and reflects on progress over time. The portfolio is for both formative and summative evaluation. With the contribution of each new sample, the student reviews the previous work and reflects on progress. This often leads to the student having insight into how he or she can improve. With new goals in mind, the student returns to learning, until the next portfolio entry. The portfolio is also a summative evaluation tool; gauging how a student measures up against standards. For this, the best entries are rated against the criteria for standards.

As the demonstration of what students know and can do, portfolios include reflections by the students on how they did the work, what they think of the artifacts in the portfolio, what they think the artifacts demonstrate and why they included it in the portfolio. These reflections provide the context for the work. http://www.schoolodyssey.com/dozenLessons.pdf