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WHAT ARE PORTFOLIOS?  

Student portfolios are a collection of evidence, prepared by the student and evaluated by the faculty member, to demonstrate mastery, comprehension, application, and synthesis of a given set of concepts. To create a high quality portfolio, students must organize, synthesize, and clearly describe their achievements and effectively communicate what they have learned. The evidence can be presented in a three-ring binder, as a multimedia tour, a website or an animation published on the Internet and on CD ROM, printed graphics displayed on mounting boards, or as a series of short papers.
How do teachers use porfolios for assessment purposes?  

The overall goal of the preparation of a portfolio is for the learner to demonstrate and provide evidence that he or she has mastered a given set of learning objectives. More than just thick folders containing student work, portfolios are typically personalized, long-term representations of a student's own efforts and achievements. Whereas multiple-choice tests are designed to determine what the student doesn't know, portfolio assessments emphasize what the student does know.

  
Why do teachers use portfolios?  

Portfolio assessment strategies provide a structure for long-duration, in depth assignments. The use of portfolios transfers much of the responsibility of demonstrating mastery of concepts from the teacher to the student.



 
Types of Portfolios  

Showcase Portfolios

  


A showcase portfolio is a limited portfolio where a student is only allowed to present a few pieces of evidence to demonstrate mastery of learning objectives. Especially useful in a laboratory course, a showcase portfolio might ask a student to include items that represent:

(i) their best work;
(ii) their most interesting work;
(iii) their most improved work;
(iv) their most disappointing work;
(v) and their favorite work.

Items could be homework assignments, examinations, laboratory reports, news clippings, or other creative works. An introductory letter that describes why each particular item was included and what it demonstrates makes this type of portfolio especially insightful to the instructor.

 

  

Checklist Portfolios

  


A checklist portfolio is composed of a predetermined number of items. Often, a course syllabus will have a predetermined number of assignments for students to complete. A checklist portfolio takes advantage of such a format and gives the students the choice of a number of different assignment selections to complete in the course of learning computer animation,web design, graphic design or digital art.

All students in Mrs. T's web publishing classes classes are required to create a checklist portfolio website.
All students in Mrs. T's grapic Design and Digital ART classes classes are required to create a printed checklist portfolio.

 

Open-Format Portfolios

An open-format for a portfolio generally provides the most insightful view of a student’s level of achievement. In an open-format portfolio, students are allowed to submit anything they wish to be considered as evidence for mastery of a given list of learning objectives. Although these portfolios are more difficult for the student to create and for the instructor to score, many students report that they are very proud of the time spent on such a portfolio.

At the end of the school year, students can elect to restructure their homework electronic portfolio into an open-format portfolio. These portfolios can be presented to prospective employers, career counselors or entered in the student showcase division of the San Diego County Fair for competitive purposes.

 
Portfolios are Effective evidence of learning and artistic growth  

 

Portfolios can be used successfully in courses provided there is an infrastructure for students and instructors to utilize.
In web publishing classes, the uniform format is the web directory that is created for each student.

Most importantly, the presentation of each item in the portfolio needs to be in a similar format.

Because we are publishing on the Internet, you must inclued the title of the project, a brief description of the project, and a hyperlink to the web page that you have created to publish your movie or information.

( If the portfolio is written, students would uniformly make use of cover sheets, forms, and prescribed notebooks.)

 
   

 

 

Sample porfolios coming soon...

  

 





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