Effective Strategies for Student Portfolios in Education

Mild/Moderate Student Portfolios Brought to you by your instructors

Contents and Instructions

Overview and Objective 1. 1. Topic: Topic: Student portfolios self-paced lesson 2. 2. Task: Task: Engage in the lesson activities on your own and with your Learning Community 3. 3. Outcome: Outcome: By the end of this session, develop and share your plan to guide a small group of your students in developing their own portfolios with assistance.

Format of the Lesson Lesson format: Lesson format: Engage and Explore Explain Apply Extend Why this? Why this? Variation of the Explore-Explain-Apply concept you learned and applied in a lesson last semester.

Instructions What to do? What to do? Complete all activities. How? How? Instructions are on each slide to guide you. Look at section titles and slide headings for clues. What else do I need to know? What else do I need to know? Some activities are completed on your own. Some activities are completed with your Learning Community (LC).

ENGAGE and EXPLORE ENGAGE and EXPLORE (on your own)

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Engage [on own] 5 Ways to Get the Most Out of Student Portfolios When we think of assessment, it s easy to imagine a test or a rubric attached to a score and letter grade. However, in many industries, from art to engineering to marketing to programming, people demonstrate their proficiency with portfolios. Similarly, students can craft portfolios to showcase their work, reflect on their learning, and set goals for the future. Here are five ways to get the most out of student portfolios. #1: Let students choose the platform. Some might prefer a blog. Others might prefer a website, a podcast, or a series of videos. #2: Encourage students to own the organizational structure. They might organize things topically or chronologically. Or both. #3: Have students reflect on both the learning process and the final products. #4: Choose a variety of work, including their best work, their favorite work, and the work that demonstrated the most growth. #5: Don t wait until the end of the year to start the portfolio process. Integrate the portfolio project into your unit plans. Take time out on certain days to have students select work and create reflections. When portfolios are an everyday part of the learning process, students can showcase their best work, reflect on their growth, and set new goals for learning targets. Here, students improve their metacognition as they determine where they are in their mastery and what steps they need to take in the future. Ultimately, this leads to deeper thinking and better learning. Watch this short video.

On Own: On Own: Which type Which type of portfolio would you like to try with your students? What artifacts What artifacts would be in this type of portfolio? What goes in it? What goes in it? It depends on the goal. It could be student work samples, progress reports, report cards, or assessments. Which type? Which type? I would like to have students set goals for the school year that they would like to accomplish.

Explore: Articles Read this article: How Using Videos for Education Changes the Classroom . Review these previously assigned readings: Black, J. (2010). Digital transition portfolios for secondary students with disabilities. Intervention in School and Clinic, 46:118. Clancy & Gardner (2017). Using digital portfolios to develop non- traditional domains in special education settings. International Journal of ePortfolio, 7 (1): 93-100. Pellegrino, A. & Gerber, B. (2012). Teacher reflection through video- recording analysis. Georgia Educational Researcher, 9 (1)

Engage on own On the following slides, answer these questions. On the following slides, answer these questions. Discuss Discuss the ideas or concepts that resonated with you from the following: the four articles the two videos in slides 7 and 8 in this lesson Share: Share: How can you apply these ideas or concepts in your classroom?

Ideas or concepts that resonated with me Ideas or concepts that resonated with me I love the thought of project based learning. In special education, we know that our students learn differently and that there is no one way to teach. By providing students the option to demonstrate their knowledge of mastery through art, poem, video, PowerPoint, etc. is showing that we as educators are recognizing the need for change from traditional assessments.

Application to my classroom Application to my classroom When I was teaching my biology class the difference between When I was teaching my biology class the difference between an animal cell and plant cell. I made all of my students their an animal cell and plant cell. I made all of my students their own mini cakes and provided them with candies to represent own mini cakes and provided them with candies to represent the different parts of the cell and their functions. My students the different parts of the cell and their functions. My students enjoyed that they were able to learn and have a yummy treat enjoyed that they were able to learn and have a yummy treat afterwards. By doing that project with them, they recognized afterwards. By doing that project with them, they recognized the different organelles in the animal cell by relating them to the different organelles in the animal cell by relating them to the candy that represented them. You have to make learning the candy that represented them. You have to make learning memorable and fun! memorable and fun!

EXPLAIN EXPLAIN Mild/Moderate Mild/Moderate Learning Community Discussions

Separate into 5 Mild/Moderate Learning Communities Separate into 5 Mild/Moderate Learning Communities LC 1: LC 1: LC 2: LC 2: LC 3: LC 3: LC 4 LC 4 LC 5 LC 5 Eric Eric Darien Darien Armando Armando Edwin Edwin Shannon Shannon Alana Alana Elizabeth Elizabeth Gabby A Gabby A- -S S Andrea Andrea Samantha Samantha Lucas Lucas Heidi Heidi Kayla Kayla Matthew Matthew Ricky Ricky

Directions: Learning Community Discussions Directions: Learning Community Discussions Contact your Learning Community peers and set a date to meet. When you meet, complete Discussions 1 and 2. Assign 1 person in the group to video record discussions. Do not edit. Either Zoom record or use your device. Upload a link to the video recorded discussions Upload a link to the video recorded discussions on Canvas. on Canvas. video record both

Discussion 1 Discussion 1 One person video record Discussions 1 & 2 and add to your Google One person video record Discussions 1 & 2 and add to your Google Drive. Upload link to Canvas. Drive. Upload link to Canvas. 1. 1. Share Share experiences experiences that you have had making and/or using portfolios with your students. Include the type of portfolio and how it was created. 2. 2. Share/discuss Share/discuss barriers barriers your students faced or might face when developing the portfolio s contents, selecting artifacts and/or reflecting on artifacts. 3. 3. Together: Brainstorm Together: Brainstorm solutions solutions to the barriers presented.

Discussion 2 Discussion 2 1. 1. How can you make the portfolio process more accessible and How can you make the portfolio process more accessible and engaging to your students? engaging to your students? 2. 2. How might the student s portfolio impact his/her/their How might the student s portfolio impact his/her/their educational performance or educational outcome? educational performance or educational outcome? 3. 3. What impact could student voice/choice in developing their What impact could student voice/choice in developing their portfolio have on the family and student as they see their student portfolio have on the family and student as they see their student develop/acquire new skills or strengths? develop/acquire new skills or strengths? 4. 4. What are two things that you can/will do to guide a small group of What are two things that you can/will do to guide a small group of your students to build their own portfolio with minimal your students to build their own portfolio with minimal assistance? assistance?