Northwest Portfolios

Northwest School
Guidelines for Work Portfolios

Background: At the beginning of the 1999-2000 school year, the teachers at Northwest School decided to start work portfolios that would be kept in a file in the school office to be passed on to the next year. The teachers agreed to collect three papers for each student during each quarter. Near the end of May, many teachers were scrambling to collect any work they could for the portfolios. Selecting samples of work was difficult because no guidelines had been given. The lack of uniformity has prevented the portfolios from being a useful assessment.

Purpose
Northwest Elementary School should use work portfolios as a formative assessment. Examples of student work should be collected throughout the year to add to a portfolio kept in the office. If the same type of work is collected each year, student progress should be seen from year to year.

Guidelines for Selecting Portfolio Entries

At least three samples of work (but no more than four) should be selected for the portfolios two times a year, 1) late October before Parent/Teacher Conferences and 2) near the end of the year in May.
Because School Improvement Plans (SIP) are a major part of planning in Illinois schools, at least two entries that are collected should support the academic goals in Northwest's SIP.

Improve instruction and test scores in the area of reading, specifically, being critical readers in the comprehension areas of literary works, explicit ideas, information sources, and vocabulary. (To correlate with ISAT testing, this entry should be in the form of a written response to a literary work.)
Improve instruction and test scores in the areas of geometry concepts, geometry relationships, probability, and computation. (To correlate with ISAT testing this entry should include the student's written response to the math problem to show the student's thoughts as the problem was solved.)

A third entry should be the choice of the student. It should represent his/her best work and should have a self evauation letter/form explaining the reason the entry was chosen.
Writing portfolios have been utilized in the school district for more than eight years, so regular essays do not need to be included in the work portfolio.
Each entry may be graded by the classroom teacher, but the overall portfolio should not be used for a classroom grade.
Although most entries should be completed individually, it may be necessary for the teacher to note that a student worked in a group or was given assistance during the assignment.
Any other adaptations or accommodations should also be noted in the portfolio.

Accommodations for Diverse Learners
All students at Northwest School should be able to participate in creating portfolios with only minor adaptations. For example, students may have to dictate responses rather than writing them. Also, the learning disabilities teacher may rate students on a lower rubric depending on the students' IEPs.

Student Role in Selection and Self Evaluation Defined

Student Selection

The third entry should be the choice of the student. It should represent his/her best work and should have a self evauation letter/form explaining the reason the entry was chosen.

Student Self Evaluation

    Each time that portfolio work is selected, students in grades 4-6 should complete the Student Self Assessment Page (PDF version). The page includes a section for self reflection of the reading entry, the math entry, and the student selected entry.
    Younger grade students should complete the Primary Student Self Assessment Page (PDF version). The page includes only a section for self reflection of the student selected entry.
    The following section on Evaluation Criteria also includes student-friendly rubrics that students can use to evaluate their own work.

Evaluation Criteria - collection times and end of year summary

Evaluation at collection times

Because we are ultimately trying to improve ISAT scores, the portfolio evaluation should correlate with ISAT evaluation. The following rubrics are provided by the Illinois State Board of Education's State Assessment Page. Rubrics were provided for only the grades that are tested in the areas of reading and math. Teachers in other grades should use the rubric for the next grade level higher to help prepare students for that level of testing. Evaluators should be aware that the Student-Friendly Rubrics are written first person.

ISAT Extended-Response Reading Assessment	$math chalkboard$ ISAT Extended-Response Math Assessment (evaluation of Mathematical Knowledge, Strategic Knowledge, and Explanation)
Extended-Response Reading Scoring Rubric	Extended-Response Mathematics Scoring Rubric
Grade 3 Student-Friendly Rubric	Grade 3 Student-Friendly Rubric
Grade 5 Student-Friendly Rubric	Grade 5 Student-Friendly Rubric
Grade 8 Student-Friendly Rubric	Grade 8 Student-Friendly Rubric

As teachers evaluate portfolio entries, they should remember to evaluate content rather than mechanics. The purpose in writing about reading and math is to make sure students understand the ideas.

Example of a Reading activity for portfolios (upper grades)
Writing a Response to a Literary Work
Rubric for response activity

End of the Year Summary

Teachers should use the Summary Portfolio Rating Form (PDF version) at the end of the year to record the progress each student has made during the year.

Portfolio Use in Instruction and Communication
Of course since each entry will be evaluated by the classroom teacher, they can be used to help determine the direction of instruction.
The first set of entries for the portfolio should be selected before parent/teacher conferences in the fall. The portfolio can then be presented to parents at the conferences. If teachers wish, the portfolios can even be used as a starting point in student-led conferences. As entries in the work portfolios accumulate, teachers can use the portfolios to show year to year student growth to both the student and parent.

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