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The Advantages of Portfolio Assessment Techniques

The portfolio is a tool to showcase student talents and as such portfolios are collections of student work. These collections can be from one class or many. There are many advantages to using portfolio assessment techniques. Portfolios enhance parent and teacher communication, they put an emphasis on the learning process as well as the content, and grades are based on actual work instead of multiple-choice and essay tests.The collection shows student progress, activities and achievement. Communication With Parents Portfolios are effective tools to use for parent communication. During conference time, a portfolio shows families exactly what the student is working on and also the process of the work. A portfolio makes a much more personal presentation of what the student spends time on at school. The portfolio is graded using a scoring guide that the parent can easily understand. If the teacher does not use a scoring guide, as with younger grades, it is still an effective way to disp

Limitations of a Portfolio Assessment

Portfolios are one way some teachers measure student performance. Employers can also use portfolios for employee evaluations and sometimes to decide what work to submit to clients or competitions. Portfolios can be creative and help sell a student or employee, but portfolios do have limitations. They should be but one part of a complete evaluation or grading process. Unreliability Portfolio assessment is subjective, especially in the absence of some sort of rubric. Just like two people might watch the same movie and come away with radically differing opinions, two people might view the same portfolio and draw different conclusions. If the portfolio is simply serving as a snapshot of student or employee work progress and is graded or evaluated on that basis alone, subjectivity might not be a major issue. However, if teachers or employers base the portfolio grade or evaluation on the so-called quality of work, then subjectivity can become a serious limitation. Selectivity One typ

The Advantages of Portfolio Assessments

A portfolio is a systematic collection of a student's work and related materials that allows a teacher or potential employer to comprehensively assess and evaluate the student's activities, accomplishments and achievements. Portfolio assessment is a process that encourages reflective learning and teaching and arms a student with the best knowledge of themselves. While portfolio assessment can be used in any subject area, it most commonly is used in fine art, graphic design, photography, journalism and music. Self-Evaluation Portfolio assessment allows the student to continuously self-evaluate, periodically reflecting on his past work and thinking critically as he prepares to meet future goals. Self-evaluation can help build the foundation for a confident, competent student. Student Work Samples While standardized-test results are a general assessment of the knowledge retained by a student, portfolio assessment provides genuine and varied samples of a student's work.

The Pros and Cons of an Assessment Portfolio

A portfolio is a collection of work, accumulated over a period of time. In the classroom, a portfolio provides a student with the chance to show off his best work in one place. It also provides a teacher with the chance to keep track of student work samples and assess students individually based on their strengths. Portfolios have drawbacks as well, and cannot usually stand alone as the sole assessment tool in a course. Pro: Individual Talents Every student in a class has individual talents; some students may thrive in the area of composition while others do better with audiovisual presentations. Having a portfolio as an assessment format allows each student to display his strongest work in one place for evaluation. It provides the teacher with a way to differentiate her assessment based on individual student strengths while still assigning one assessment to the whole class. It lets the students choose their very best work to showcase and allows every student a chance to shine. P

How to Use Rubric for Assessing Portfolios

An increasing number of teachers are implementing portfolios into their classrooms because they see the benefits to their students. When students organize their projects and assignments by using portfolios, they are better able to reflect upon their learning. This helps deepen their understanding of the lessons. At the end of the unit of work or at the end of the semester, the teacher must decide how to evaluate the portfolios. Similar to the assessment of other student work, rubrics can assist in this process. Things You'll Need Large bins to store the portfolios Copier machine Marking pen Show More Instructions List the criteria to use for the assessment of the portfolio. Decide upon what is important, such as neatness and completeness. Include other criteria that you instructed the students to consider when they first set up their portfolios. For example, if you asked them to include a table of contents or to date each piece placed in the portfolio, then these will be

How to Construct a Prior Learning Assessment Portfolio

Portfolio assessment establishes skill development and knowledge acquired in an educational program. Prior learning assessment can save time and effort by eliminating unnecessary courses. Anyone who wishes to advance toward a degree or certification can submit a prior learning portfolio for credit. Degree requirements are less negotiable than electives for any program. Contact a mentor at your job to help you construct your portfolio. Things You'll Need A mentor Photocopies of syllabus, course materials, tests, or certifications Course exemption forms from your school or program Show More Instructions Organize the materials that document your prior coursework or trainings before meeting with your mentor. Clarify which projects qualify you for exemption from any prerequisites, or elective courses. Request any forms or documents from the administrative office that you need to complete. Ask your mentor about trainings that qualify for exemption from prerequisites to the de

Purposes of Portfolio Assessment

As an alternate assessment strategy, the portfolio provides students with the opportunity to select a progression of work to demonstrate knowledge of a topic. For example, in an English course, a student may collect essays over the series of a semester to demonstrate increased writing capability and to showcase favorite pieces of writing. In a science course, a student may keep a portfolio for the duration of an experiment, demonstrating results and tracking hypotheses. Types of Portfolios Although the purpose of the portfolio is to provide a means of assessing student learning and understanding, a portfolio can take on a variety of forms. The growth portfolio is used over an extended period of time as students collect samples of their work to demonstrate their understanding of concept. Additionally, focusing on end products or a demonstration of a student's best work takes place in a presentation portfolio. In this second format, the student tries to select work that best show

How to Create an Assessment Portfolio

While a test can give teachers a small snapshot of a student's mental abilities, an assessment portfolio provides a much more in-depth, authentic assessment of the pupil's skill level. Although the task of creating an assessment portfolio takes more time and effort than giving a standard test, the resulting picture of the student's skill level is so much more clear that it often proves worth the extra time. As you set about assessing your students, guide them through the creation of an assessment portfolio and use this tool to better your understanding of your their actual skill level. Instructions Define the purpose for the portfolio. List the things that you want the portfolio contents to show. For example, if creating a portfolio for science, you might want it to show that the student understands and can utilize the scientific method as well as that the pupil is familiar with an array of science-related vocabulary. Pick a portfolio container. If the planned portfol

How to Do a Portfolio Assessment

A portfolio offers an alternative form of assessment of students' capabilities independent of test-taking skills. A portfolio provides a clear view of the learning path that students have taken over time, while encouraging mastery of a body of knowledge and the skills needed to acquire it. Photographs and videotapes of presentations and activities, student and observer narratives, journal entries and project proposals should all be included in a portfolio. Things You'll Need Digital or throwaway camera Video camera Hanging file box and files Dividers Sticky note tabs Show More Instructions Collect representative samples of students' work. These should include descriptions of projects, photos, observer and demonstrator narratives, journal entries and documentation of any self-exploratory activities, such as surveys and interest inventories. For example, a student who participates in a Young Eagles flight might include a photo of himself in the cockpit of the p

Definition of Portfolio Assessment

Portfolio Assessment is a term used to describe a collection (or portfolio) of a student's work collected over time, so that teachers, school administrators, and parents can view a student's progression in a given content area (such as math or reading). Students usually have some hand in choosing the work that goes into their portfolio, often choosing work that is most representative of their abilities. Significance Portfolio Assessment grew out of the desire to find another way to measure academic success other than standardized, norm-referenced, multiple-choice style tests. While a standardized test can measure what a given student knows "at the moment", portfolio assessment can measure a student's cognitive process. Advocates of portfolio assessment often point to the disconcerting trend that, given the high stakes of standardized, and more recently, state testing, curriculum is often more geared to the test rather than providing opportunities for broad edu