Assessment: Portfolios as a tool

Assessment– Chapter 15
Routman’s chapter on assessment pretty much covered the same information taught in Dr. Kennedy’s class on assessment. What I particularly appreciated about Evaluations as Part of Teaching was the information on portfolios as a tool that, when used correctly, could assist teacher and parents, as well as serve to drive the self–assessment need in students.
Fortunately, my school gets a lot of parent visitation during Parent Conference nights. During these conferences both parents and students are present. Next year I will use the portfolio as a tool which will allow children to show their parents what they have accomplished between each report card period. Because I am a resource pull–out teacher for literacy and math my class’s portfolios will be limited to those two topics. This year we did create portfolios, but they were not used to their maximum good. I think that when students better understand the purpose of the portfolio (to show growth), they will understand why it is okay to include some of their less successful papers or projects.
I must say that the math portfolio was created with more enthusiasm by my class. I think the reason for this success was that it contained art/math related projects which included math stories of their own creations. For next year I will plan a more creative literacy portfolio. It will be my purpose to stress self assessment as a goal and the portfolio as a means for making the assessment more meaningful.
Because my students require special education service, as they perform below grade level as a result of mild learning disabilities, the creating of portfolios will be a fairer means to assess their learning and at the same time provide me with a tool to drive instruction. It will also continue to give parents physical evidence of learning that they can appreciate. Because the creating of portfolios is so personal, it will continue to allow me to sit beside (Routman p. 557) my students and really have an opportunity to give authentic assessment. Hopefully the portfolios will lessen the stress created by subjecting my students to Standardized testing, in particular.