Portfolios Rock!

Assessment

Portfolios in the classroom are a tool for assessing students.  There is still an important place for traditional forms of assessment in the classroom.  A balanced portfolio includes traditional forms of assessment such as quizzes and tests, process-based portfolio assessments and performance or applied knowledge of content.  The teacher uses a well-designed rubric to assess the students progress and achievement by reviewing the entire portfolio of work.

Introducing portfolios to children in the elementary grades can begin simply by considering the learner and the individual developmental abilities.  For instance, children can begin by “telling the teacher” about a bit of writing and progress to journal writing, learning logs, narratives, performances and group projects.  As with every assessment or educational technique, careful planning of the portfolio process is key (Belgrad, 2008).

(Belgrad, 2008, p. 5)

This website is a helpful guide for creating electronic portfolios and rubrics:

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/assess.html#portfolios