Starting in on Portfolios— Now!
from Susan Richman
Is this a familiar scene to
you? It was January, halfway through the school year, and my daughter Hannah’s
homeschooling work for the year was piling up. It was stacked in various
‘portfolio bins’ about the house, as well as in folders and backpacks and
cluttered desktops, and many computer files. But none of it was yet organized
in our final 3” thick portfolio notebook for the year. That notebook was still
sitting on a shelf in our project room quite empty and forlorn.
I kept on
saying that we’d get to it this coming Friday, or on Sunday afternoon, or next
Monday— but I kept letting these little deadlines slip away as the normal busy
pace of our days took over instead. But finally we did it— we took that most
important step of getting started. I usually like my kids to work on
their portfolios themselves, but I quickly realized that the task was too
daunting for Hannah to begin herself at this point. It was my fault we’d waited
so long to get going, and so it was my responsibility to get us started.
Surprisingly,
the whole process of sorting work to go into the notebook by subject area,
punching holes, writing some brief captions, and opening and closing the rings
repeatedly as I put pages in, took only a couple of hours— and once I got
going, I didn’t want to stop.
And the
advantages to starting in on this now, before the spring rush? It let me see
where we were at this point in the year, let me see what areas were really
strong (reading, math, geography, French) and which were weaker or showed
little documentation (science, fitness and health). It gave us more of a sense
of direction for the rest of the year, and a new motivation to try harder in
subjects that are not our greatest natural interest. Much better to gain this
now, rather than in late May.
Now the
whole process is in motion, and entering new sample work is so much easier— we
don’t just have to ‘dump’ work in an overflowing bin. Now it is easy to ask
Hannah to add in more captions to field trip brochures, or to pop her latest
writing club essay into the proper subject divider.
Some
tips for types of work to include in this year’s portfolio:
1) Sample final tests
in any subject area— that is, if they also include the questions. It’s
nice to see final grades for tests, but even better if the evaluator can see
what the questions actually were and what the student was being asked to
do. If your child has taken part in academic competitions that you’ve found
interesting, do include that also— just the fact that you all took the
initiative to take part says a lot, regardless of how well your student did.
And if you prefer not doing any summary tests at all, you can still have a fine
and very interesting portfolio— tests can just be a handy way of summarizing
the types of learning your child has been focusing on this year. And tests
should probably never be the only type of evidence you show.
2) Samples of best work.
Some families like to have a student choose which, say, five written
compositions are their very favorite pieces. These might be highlighted with
little post-it note ‘flags’, or put in the front of that subject divider, so
that an evaluator can be sure to read these specially selected writings. This
can really help out during a busy evaluation meeting, so that an evaluator
knows what you really want her to read carefully— some kids write so many
wonderful pieces during a year that it would be impossible to read through them
all in one sitting. Adding brief notes from the student or parent about why
these were considered the best would be a nice touch, and show that some real
thought went into the selection. Remember, ideally a portfolio is not just
‘all’ of your work tossed into a pile, but a meaningful selection.
Further,
you should check to see that kids are showing several different types of
writing, such as personal essays, formal essays showing understanding of
subject matter, research writing, poetry or short stories or plays, science
experiment reports, recaps of field trip outings, writing strictly for ‘fun’,
and more. Showing only one type of writing shows you have limits— showing a
range of writing shows versatility and that you’ve really stretched yourself.
For lots of good examples of a full range of student writing, you might want to
check out our book Writing From Home (see catalog, page 31).
3)
Samples that show the range of work completed, and the different
types of learning activities used over the year. Hopefully most families do
something beyond using a textbook in at least some subject areas, and some
sense of these other types of learning should be included to make a really
complete portfolio. For instance, in world geography Hannah is completing the
second half of a distance course, and she takes regular on-line quizzes and
takes tests and completes readings in her textbook. But that’s hardly all we do
in this favorite subject area, and we also include info on the wide-ranging
preparation she does for the National Geographic Bee, the many geography videos
we watch and talk about together, the read-aloud articles from National
Geographic magazine, newspaper articles and almanac readings, map studies
using our huge map collection, computer games and atlases, as well as other
resource and reference books.
Relating
something about these other ways of learning really broadens the portfolio, and
shows that we are using the distance course as a stepping stone to much broader
learning. Sometimes parents think that the only types of ‘papers’ that count
are typical worksheets and workbooks— lots more can really be included, and
once you get going you’ll find ways to document these many other ways you go
about learning.
4)
Samples that show the process of a major project, such as sharing
a rough draft of a piece of writing that shows how extensive revisions and
rewritings and corrections were made by the student after conferring with a
parent, or after doing self-evaluation. Just don’t think this means showing every
rough draft of every piece of writing! Listing the steps a student went through
to complete a major research project—
such as brainstorming to focus the topic, going to a major library,
using the Internet, reading related books or magazine articles, interviewing
people in the field, etc— can all give a feel for the process involved,
especially for high school students who expect to earn credit for a research
paper in a subject. It is not impressive for an evaluator to get a feeling that
a student did little beyond paraphrasing a couple of intro reference books,
again especially if this is the sole way a student hopes to demonstrate credit.
Demonstrate that the project was indeed a major effort that took time, not a
quickie last minute snow job.
5)
Have your older students write summaries for every subject area, where
they describe the approach used, what goals were met, and special things they
accomplished over the year. It should
be especially encouraged for kids to relate about any special initiatives they
took over the year— such as writing for a student newsletter, developing their
own plan of study, entering an academic or talent competition, start a study
group or activity related to the field, or whatever. Evaluators will appreciate having copies of these summaries to
help as they write up their evaluation letter afterwards. And parents might
want to write up similar summaries for younger students— as an evaluator, I can
really tell you how appreciated these are! Helps me see more of the way your
family went about learning, helps me see a bit of the rest of the picture that
might not show up in the actual work samples.
6) Make
sure your portfolio is organized in a clear way— and this usually
does take some parental input and advice, especially when kids are just
starting to take initiative in helping put together their portfolio of work for
the year. Don’t just hand over a stack of textbooks, workbooks, and loose
papers. Organize, put papers into notebooks or pocket folders, keep similar
work together, show you took time to put this all together. This does not need
to be a huge job, especially if you start in early (I’m allowed to give this
advice now that I’ve finally followed it!). You don’t need to take a ‘Creative
Memories’ class to put together a great portfolio (though those ones are always
a treat!), but you do need to make the portfolio understandable, accessible,
and clear.
For more
ideas on putting together a portfolio that you’ll all enjoy looking through for
many years, check out our Guide to the PA Homeschool Law. And do get
started now and avoid the late spring panic. s