Student Portfolios- a valuable assessment tool

1. Student Portfolios-a valuable assessment tool Adele Fattore

2. What is a student portfolio? • A collection of student work over time. • Authentic evidence of student learning

3. What benefits can portfolios bring? • Demonstrate and assess children’s individual learning styles • Involve students in their own learning • Involves parents • Showcases excellent work done by teachers.

4. Why use Portfolios? • Demonstrate student skills and understanding • Opportunities for students to reflect on their learning • Document students’ development and growth • Demonstrate different learning styles • Parents love them!

5. What VELS elements am I assessing? • Does the portfolio demonstrate these?

7. LOTE • Communicating in a LOTE • Intercultural knowledge and language awareness

8. LOTE • Communication • Design, Creativity and Technology

9. A thought... • “If carefully assembled, portfolios become an intersection of instruction and assessment; they are not just instruction or assessment, but, rather, both.” • (Paulson and Meyer 1991)

10. Portfolios as Assessment devices • Portfolios provide a more complete picture of a student’s achievement rather than a one shot performance

11. Snapshot vs. Photo Album • Sound assessment requires multiple evidence over time - a photo album vs. a single snapshot

12. Portfolios in LOTE • Examine language goals and set new ones • Demonstration of different learning styles, cultural diversity. • Students reflect on their work and learning • Contain work in progress

13. Benefits of using Portfolios

14. Assessment/Reporting and Portfolios • What key complex tasks will indicate student understanding? • What other evidence will be collected to build understanding, knowledge and skills?

15. What goes into Portfolios? • Writing- dated writing samples to show process and product over semester • Process - first and second drafts of work along with final product to show growth • Literacy-combination of reading, writing, speaking and listening pieces • Showcase of best work

16. What works for you? Let’s share • In pairs, discuss how you approach the portfolio process. • What problems did you encounter? • How did you resolve these? • Any suggestions to improve the whole process?

17. The Portfolio Process 1.) Collect everything in a working portfolio 2.) Select key pieces for final portfolio 3.) Reflect on selections- teacher and student

18. The Five Steps sharing projection reflection selection collection

19. Reflection process • Students will articulate their thinking about each piece in their portfolio • Students become aware of themselves as learners

20. A prompt • “I like this piece of writing because I .....’ • I have improved in my ability to....” • “One thing I still need to work on is....” • “One thing I used to have trouble with but now I can do is...”

21. Projection • Looking ahead • Setting goals • Students can make judgements about their work • An objective look at the entire portfolio

22. Some background information Northcote High School Leading Schools Fund 2007 Review of Middle Years Program VELS aligned units of work Cross- Faculty linking of curriculum Common theme- Global Citizenship Student portfolios to demonstrate learning

23. LOTE Unit of WorkImmigration- Interviewing an elderly person • Begin unit with a Mind Map/ Brainstorm tasks (conducted in the target language) What is immigration? Who are the migrants ? Why do we need to immigrate? If you were to immigrate, where would you go and why? How would you survive?

24. What Vels elements am I assessing? • Does the portfolio demonstrate these?

25. What gives a complete picture of student: • understanding • learning • achievement ?

26. Content of Unit • Interview a migrant in the target language • Produce a biography • Create a brochure • (Melbourne Immigration Museum, Italian regional social clubs- Veneto/ Abruzzo Club etc) • Research Post War Italy, Greece etc RUBRIC

27. What to include in the portfolio? • YOUR feedback

28. What to include in the portfolio? • Drafts / final copies of interview questions • Planning process for interview • Planning details of brochure construction • Reflections about the interview

29. Student centred learning • Teacher no longer sits alone in judgement of student • Students take responsibility for learning • Students reflect on learning

30. How do we learn a language? • Memory strategies- repeating, practising sounds, listening, speaking, reading, writing, summarising, drafting • Organising and evaluating your learning- linking with material you already know, setting goals, planning / evaluating progress • Learning with others- asking questions for clarification

31. Portfolio sample

32. “ Reflection.... If I am always the one to think of where to go next.. If where we go is always the decision of the curriculum or my curiosity and not theirs.. If motivation is mine..

33. If I always decide on the topic to be studied... the title of the story.. the problem to be worked on..

34. How will they ever begin? From: Edwards, J & Russell, S (1996). The Things we Steal from Children

35. “ a purposeful collection that tells the story of the students’ efforts, progress and achievements in a given area.” • Skawinski & Thibodeau

36. You’ve got to go below the surface...

37. To uncover the really ‘big ideas.’