Portfolio Assessment

Ch. 3 Portfolio Assessment, O’Malley

When we were first introduced to portfolios during one of the teacher inservices I tried it out without success. I didn’t know much about portfolios but I followed one of the simple forms with the smiley face (to show they liked their selected work) and a frowning face (to show dislike). Students were to circle one of them and explain why they felt the way they did about their selected piece. Since I missed the part where we get students to explain their choice, my biggest worry was in students picking their best work and not being able to say why it was their best work. And since I was the only one in our building doing the portfolios, and I didn’t know where to turn to for help, I dropped the whole thing. I don’t remember how far I went with the portfolios.
The book describes three different ways students can assess their work: documentation, explaining why they chose that piece as their best work, comparison of their prior piece to their recent piece to show improvement, and integration, by describing their improvements in general ways. The book also states that students need to know how their work will be evaluated and by what standards so that they can set goals to work for. I think this will help them to explain their choice of “best work”. The book also states that students be given examples of an exemplary piece and a not so exemplary piece. By looking at the exemplary piece students are to discuss what makes it a good piece and to come up with a criteria chart. I like the example that was given on page 40 that has the heading “What a Good Writer Can Do”. The first criteria states, “I can plan before I write,” which is stated in a positive form. I’d like to try using Portfolios with my students, and I ‘d like to start out with writing which I think will be simple. But I’d need more guidance I think.