PORTFOLIOSPrepared by:Joanne Lian

Chua Swee WoonTee Shu MinKev Yi BengDaniel Koh

Nurul Adilah

Paulson & Meyer (1991: 60) define portfolio as “a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the student’s efforts,

progress, and achievements in one or more areas”.

Definition

Portfolios include materials such as

• Essays and compositions in draft and final forms;• Reports, project outlines;• Poetry and creative prose;• Artwork, photos, newspaper or magazines clippings;• Audio, and/or video recordings of presentations,

demonstrations, etc;• Journals, diaries, and other personal reflections;• Tests, test scores, and written homework exercises;• Notes on lectures; and• Self- and peer assessments – comments, evaluations, and

checklists.

Contents of Portfolio

Portfolios include materials such as:

1. Essays and compositions in draft and final forms

2. Reports, project outlines3. Poetry and creative prose4. Artwork, photos, newspaper or magazine

clippings5. Audio or video recordings of presentations,

demonstrations etc

Portfolios include materials such as:

6. journals, diaries and other personal reflections7. test, test scores and other written homework exercises8. Notes on lectures9. Self and peer-assessments – comments, evaluations and checklists

Essential Elementsof the portfolio

Every portfolio must obtain the following essential elements:

1. Cover Letter “About the author” and “What my portfolio shows about my progress as a learner” (written at the end, but put at the beginning). The cover letter summarizes the evidence of a student’s learning and progress.

2. Table of Contents with numbered pages.

3. Entries – both core (items students have toinclude) and optional (items of students choice).The core elements will be required for eachstudent and will provide a common base fromwhich to make decisions on assessment. Theoptional items will allow the folder to representthe uniqueness of each student. Students canchoose to include “best” pieces of work, butalso a piece of work which gave trouble or onethat was less successful, and give reasons why.

Every portfolio must obtain the following essential elements:

4.Dates on all entries, to facilitate proof of growth over time.

5. Drafts of aural/oral and written products and revised versions; i.e., first drafts and corrected/revised versions.

6. Reflections can appear at different stages in the learning process (for formative and/or summative purposes.) and at the lower levels can be written in the mother tongue or by students who find it difficult to express themselves in English.

Every portfolio must obtain the following essential elements:

For each item – a brief rationale for choosing the item should be included. This can relate to students’ performance, to their feelings regarding their progress and/or themselves as learners. Students can choose to reflect upon some or all of the following:

• What did I learn from it?• What did I do well?• Why (based on the agreed teacher-student

assessment criteria) did I choose this item?• What do I want to improve in the item?• How do I feel about my performance?• What were the problem areas?

BENEFITS OF USING PORTFOLIOS

Foster intrinsic motivation, responsibility, and ownership

Promote student-teacher interaction with the teacher as facilitator

Individualize learning and celebrate the uniqueness of each student

Provide tangible evidence of a student’s work

Facilitate critical thinking ,self-assessment , and revision processes

Offer opportunities for collaborative work with peers

Permit assessment of multiple dimensions of language learning

DISADVANTAGES OF USING PORTFOLIOS

Portfolios become problematic when they are used on a large scale.

It is quite subjective as it must be considered as a personal student product.

Different interpretation in the setting of standards and criteria for grading portfolios is a problem where it has to evaluate a student’s personal interests.

It is needed to train teachers to assess the portfolio fairly and accurately.

It is difficult to maintain high inter rater reliability with portfolio assessment because there are many items included in it.

The increased time and resources needed in developing and assessing the portfolios become a problem.

Steps and Guidelines

1. State objectives clearly

Pick one or more of the CRADLE attributes named above and specify them as objectives of developing a portfolio.

Show how those purposes ae connected to, integrated with, and/or a reinforcement of your already stated curricular goals.

2. Give guidelines on what materials to include

Name the types of work that should be

included.

Teacher guidance will keep students on target with curricular

objectives.

Give clear directions on how to get started

and

give samples from previous students to

stimulate some thoughts on what to

include.

3. Communicate assessment criteria to students

Two sources- self assessment & teacher assessment must be incorporated – for

maximum benefit.

Self-assessment – clear & simple.

Teacher-assessment – mirror self-assessment wit similar questions designed to highlight the

formative nature of the assessment.

Conferences – important

Can include peer assessment or small group conferences to comment on one another’s

portfolios.

- Make sure students have time set aside for portfolio work (including in-class time).- Your own opportunities for conferencing are not compromised.

4. Designate time within the curriculum for portfolio development

5. Establish periodic schedules for review

and conferencing

By doing so, you will prevent students from throwing everything

together at the end of a term.

6. Designate an accessible place to keep portfolio

- Self-contained classroom or a place in reading room/library to

keep the materials.

- Encourage students to create their own

accessible location and to bring to class only

the materials they needed.

7. Provide positive washback-giving final assessment

For portfolios containing written work, Wolcott (1998) recommended a holistic scoring scale ranging from 1 to 6

based on such qualities as inclusion of

• out-of-class work• error-free work• depth of content• creativity• organization• writing style• “engagement” of students.