Week 4 discussion topics and key concepts

¶ … popular form of assessment? Do you think portfolios are a good medium to assess learning? Why or why not?

Portfolios allow teachers to grade student progress over a period of time, rather than focusing on one, specific cumulative assignment. Almost all classes contain students with mixed skill levels. A teacher is often frustrated by the need to make assignments challenging enough for high-level learners, so they will continue to apply themselves and not merely 'coast' through class, while not leaving behind lower-level students. A portfolio allows a teacher to give 'points' to a student if he or she has shown progress over the year, even if his or her actual meeting of general class benchmarks has fallen short. The teacher can also give alternative assignments to add to the portfolio for extra credit, either to stretch a gifted student's ability, tailor the assignments to a student's specific interests or learning challenges, or to allow a struggling student who tries hard to make up for poor grades with extra work.

Portfolios also are an instrument of self-education, as the student can see his or her progress over time. For older students, many teachers may ask the child to select what he or she thinks is his or her best work. The student must critically evaluate his or her progress over the semester to do so. Assembling the portfolio requires the student to review critical concepts relevant to the educational process if the teacher asks, for example: "select your best pieces of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry" or "select a work that contains an extended metaphor, another work that is a book review, and a final work that exhibits independent research."

The teacher can make use of the portfolio in 'grading' his or her own pedagogical work, while the student's progress at various points in time. Although a student may have learning challenges, the teacher may still be able to see demonstrable improvement within critical skill sets. Portfolios give teachers an indication as to what aspects of the educational process are working for each, specific, student and which ones are not. As class sizes become larger, yet the population of special needs students increases, portfolio assessment allows teachers to give individualized attention to all students within their classrooms. But the use of portfolios can be time-consuming, because of their individualized nature, and the fact that the grading criteria and requirements must be slightly different for every single student.