Using Portfolios as Assessment

Using portfolios is a great way to assess students. Teachers might wonder if portfolios are worth the extra effort. Teachers might also wonder what a portfolio would show them that they did not already know about their students. I started using the portfolio process for the first time this past year to see if they were worth the effort. Each student in my classroom completed a writing portfolio. Every few weeks, my students would complete a writing topic for their portfolio. Each student had a folder that they kept their writing pages in. Students could look at this portfolio and assess their own writing progress. I would also take a look at their pages from time to time and comment on their progress. At the end of the year, I bound the each student’s portfolio into a book for them to take home. My first grade students were very proud of themselves with the progress they had made-especially when comparing the first day of school’s writing to the last day of school’s writing! The portfolio made a great visual for parents too. The best part for me as a teacher is I was able to see that all my students made many gains in their writing from when they came to me in the beginning of the year! The 6+1 trait lessons we were required to teach really worked!

Allington’s chapter on portfolios gives some good suggestions on how to use portfolios. I will use these suggestions to improve upon the portfolio method. One suggestion Allington had was to have students choose or negotiate what to put in their portfolios. This is a great suggestion because I think students would really have to self-assess their pages to figure out what their best work is. It would also give them empowerment in their own work. Another strategy Allington had was to invite parents to be partners in the portfolio process. This is also a great suggestion because parents know their children better than anyone. Parent involvement has been proven to increase student achievement

Yes, using portfolios in a classroom is extra work in an already busy day. If a teacher organizes the use of portfolios into her lesson plans before the year begins and uses proven strategies, portfolios do not have to take a lot of extra time in anyone’s day. After using portfolios the first time, a teacher will no doubt have to adjust accordingly to what worked and what did not. But a portfolio sure shows better progress than some multiple choice tests and writing prompts given out four times/year. Portfolios are worth the effort and will be the best assessment a teacher, student, and parent can have.