Portfolios

I agree with Joe’s comments about Portfolios being a part of our entire career from the first education class in the earliest part of undergraduate study to the internship year.  Portfolios are the culmination of whatever course assigns it.  They should be a showcase of the learner’s accomplishments in a given period of time.

In the high school level a senior portfolio is supposed to show how much the writer has grown in writing throughout the four year experience. The portfolio must include a variety of pieces to address several types of writing and connect to real world writings that they will need  in life. There is so much emphasis put on these collections that by the time they are in their senior year students have done enough writing that they should have a collection from which to choose one to include in the senior portfolio for each category.  

In some schools, teachers in each content area must turn in one piece per( a certain time period ranging from a week to a  month). This is the reason that some teachers don’t like  the portfolios. It takes time away from teaching our content. However, if we have them write in our content area this would solve that problem. In my school each teacher must turn in one piece per semester. This is does not take a huge amount of time from  my content area and since they must be in English, a piece on culture such as, immigration which has been a hot news topic recently, or a brochure on travel to a Spanish speaking country is acceptable. This puts the majority of the work on the English teachers who bear the brunt not only of the students’ resentment after prolonged periods of nonstop practice of either portfolio writing or on demand practice but also the responsibility for the scores whether they are high or low.

I have heard student complaints as they enter my classroom about all the writing they are tired of doing in the English class they just left. My standard reply to this is “You will thank Ms. ______ or Mr. ______ when you get to college and find that you will need to know the writing process for every class you take.”  In my high school days writing was not focused on and this left me at a disadvantage when I decided to go to college as a nontraditional student after many years out of the classroom. I wished I had been taught writing skills. Although I have grown tremendously  as a writer, I still struggle with putting my thoughts into words.

Last year my school required teachers from all content areas to take the portfolio scoring training and then assigned us to score them. I was terrified to have that responsibility since I had not had any experience or connection with portfolios before.  I was not given a choice and when the process was complete, I felt much more knowledgeable about being able to help students with their pieces than before.  I also got to know some of my students better and from another perspective.

I am totally in favor of the writing portfolios, in fact I feel that students are learning a valuable skill which they will need and be grateful for all their adult lives. I think it is an excellent tool for assessing their knowledge in different content areas and is very necessary.