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While I spend a lot of time planning and counting and calculating our 180 days of school, and making sure I have met the requirements to complete all our days with accurate lesson plans, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about another requirement - the portfolio. Usually I just dump all my kids' work into a box with the lesson plan book and figure I've done well enough.
At it's most basic, a portfolio is a sampling of the work your student has completed throughout the school year (or in my case a file box with everything we did that year). While we are required by law to keep a portfolio, a portfolio can go a long way toward validating your grades and your homeschool if they are ever brought into question. We know of at least one case in our state where a family was charged with educational neglect because they did not have any records to show for the work they had done. Even though the students tested at or above grade level the family was forced to put their students back in public school because they had no records to show that they actually were homeschooling.
I attended a workshop last year on making a portfolio which encouraged us to do a little more than just dump all our files into a box. I wanted to share some of that information with you.
At the workshop we were encouraged to evaluate our student's work each week and pull out one or two pieces of work that were representative of the work done that week (both good and bad). We were then encouraged to go through those papers once a quarter and again select a few representative samples. Those samples should then tie in with our semi-annual grade reports to help show why our student received the grade he or she did.
For example, my third grader struggles with spelling. We have tried a different approach this year and her spelling while still a bit wobbly is greatly improved since the beginning of the year. My progress report at Christmas noted that while she did well learning the rules, she didn't have much of a feel for when a certain rule would be used. At this point she seems to be getting some idea of when a rule will be used and she is also starting to recognize when a word looks wrong.
The examples in the portfolio should bear this assessment out. I will include both spelling tests and examples from her writing showing many misspelled words from the beginning of the year. Other examples of her work will show improved spelling as well as multiple eraser marks where she attempted various spellings and realized that they were wrong.
Similarly for other subjects the examples I choose should go with my assessment of the work done over the course of the year.
At the workshop, it was suggested that we might want to include an explanation telling why we included certain items in the portfolio - pictures from a field trip for instance. Together with the semi-annual reports the portfolio gives a good picture of the work accomplished in a school year.
It was pointed out to us that another benefit of making an organized portfolio was that it is encouraging to the students as well. The speaker and his wife stored their portfolios in three-ring binders on a shelf in the schoolroom. Their children liked to look back through the portfolios from time to time and see how much progress they had made.
I haven't been pulling out examples for the portfolio very consistently, but I have plans to take some time at the end of the school year to make a well-organized portfolio.
Think about taking some time to make a portfolio this year.
1 comments:
We love the three ring binder system, but it happens much more naturally & effortless the way we do things. We add certain types of papers as we do them, about once or twice a week. At the beginning of the year the binders are divided by subject, and flow naturally with the nature of assignments. e.g, In our Math program, (1st - 6th grade) every tenth lesson includes a test. Our "Math" section of the portfolio simply includes the 16 tests. With Grammar, we tear out the Chapter Reviews and Cumulative Reviews from the workbook and add them to the Grammar section. I also file rough and Final drafts of various types of writing compositions. For Spelling, and English Root words (Greek & Latin), we simply use lined paper and have a "test" every week, which, the moment the test is done are added to the notebook. For History, once or twice a week a summary of the week's reading is made and filed. Or sometimes Map work is done and filed. The only "maintenance" I do is usually at Mid-terms and end of year, during which time I will look to see if any subject seems to be missing work. Overall, I probably have a little more material than I have to, but I assume that it will work well anyway, being so well organized. Usually all this fits into 2 binders (thicker binders as they get older). I usually enjoy a "year at a glance" session in June when I add pictures and flyers from our field trips (if I didn't add them already simply by inserting a blank paper and taping them onto it). Finally, when I write up my Year end reviews, I print out paper copies and put them in the very beginning (just for good measure).
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