The main takeaway from this roundtable for me was the importance of making the online portfolio reflective. To be effective, online portfolios must be reflective and get feedback from others. The teacher should not be the only audience of the online portfolio. The audience should also include other students, teachers, and parents. One of the quotes from the roundtable that I liked best is "Portfolios should be a bridge to content; not just a storage place."
I believe when I first started with online portfolios, I really did use them as a storage place. I have started changing that practice. However, after being part of this roundtable, I will put more of an emphasis on making portfolios more collaborate and reflective for teachers and students.
Another great quote from the roundtable was from Mike Muir, guest speaker. He stated "What is the evidence of your learning vs. what is the evidence of your completing the project?" This really stood out to me because I feel we often put more emphasis on the end product then we do on the learning that took place. Instead of creating a final product and moving on, the reflection should be built into the unit. I plan to explore the resources provided by members of the roundtable in order to be able to make this concept clearer for teachers and students.
Next week I am going to start an online portfolio project with an 8th grade Literacy class at South Middle School. They are using this as their final project. When collaborating with the teacher and introducing the project to the students, we will discuss that students will only include their best work in the online portfolio. In addition, we will discuss sharing and setting up comments. Another requirement will be for the students to write a reflection for each piece. I will work with the teacher to determine what she feels is important to include in the reflections. Some examples shared during the roundtable were:
- What do you know? What can you do? So What?
- What did we just learn, and why did we learn it?
- 3-2-1: 3 things you learned, 2 things to share with someone else, 1 thing you still want to learn
One of my goals is to work with teachers at the beginning of the school year to start online portfolios with students. The students can then add evidence of learning throughout the school year. This will with help students show growth over time, especially students with special needs and English Language Learners. I would also like to see student sharing these online portfolios with their parents throughout the year, especially at parent-teacher conference.
In a future blog, I hope to share some awesome online portfolios created by students at the schools I support.
If you are interested in watching the session click on the link below:
Link to Session
Some resources shared during the roundtable:
- Distributed PD Project (Auburn, ME) - http://distributedpd.wordpress.com/
- Inside the Black Box, Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment, Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam, King’s College London School of Education
This is a wonderful reflection and action plan based upon our Roundtable discussion. I am so glad you were able to participate and I can't wait to see the portfolios you create as a result!
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