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1. Discuss how portfolio assessments support you as a professional in your quest to ensure the growth of the children with whom you work. Make sure to include specific examples of the purposes of portfolios to support your thinking.
As a professional in my quest to ensure growth of children, portfolio assessments support by having a plethora of student’s academic progress such as the quality of course or classwork, determining if students are reaching or meeting their learning standards, and overall the development of their cognitive, physical, social/ emotional, and language learning domains. Because all students are not the same, as a professional I will be able to use different types of assessments to use for their portfolios. The portfolio will consist of anecdotal notes, photos, artwork, drawings, writings, and checklists regarding the child’s development and progress throughout the academic year.
2. Explain how you will manage the logistical piece of using portfolio assessments. Reference section 6.2 Portfolio Logistics from the course text to support your explanation.
Rather, portfolios are most powerful when they adopt a focused and systematic approach to serve the purpose of assessment (Howard & Aiken, 2015). I will manage the logistical piece of using portfolio assessments by establishing a purpose of implementing the portfolio assessment, and then support that purpose by documenting progress. I will complete this by first choosing what type of form of portfolio I want to do for the student such as a individual folders or poster boards. Secondly, I would choose what learning domain I want to focus on and an end goal for the student to achieve. Thirdly, I would see how I want to organize the portfolio, whether chronological or by theme or by topic. Portfolios are as varied as the teachers who create them. That said, there are certain key elements that drive a portfolio’s utility as an assessment piece (Howard & Aiken, 2015).
3. Describe the different types of evidence that are included in portfolios. Make sure to explain the role the children will play in this piece of the portfolio process.
Many different kinds of authentic evidence may be included in a portfolio (see Table 6.3). Regardless of the specific artifacts included, educators, children, and parents should all be involved in a portfolio’s development and utility if it is to meet the criteria for performance-based assessment (Seitz & Bartholomew, 2008). (Howard & Aiken, 2015). There are several types of evidence that are included in portfolios such as Writing samples (May include journal entries, stories, scribble progressions, and so on), Academic work sample (May include more formal academic documentation, such as traditional worksheets, science journal entries, and data collection, like graphs), Art projects(Examples of painting, drawing, coloring, cutting, gluing, and so on), Videos(Used to record performances (that is, singing), physical accomplishments (that is, climbing a structure on the playground), interactions (dramatic play with others), and so on), Photographs (Can document children’s physical abilities, like gross and fine motor skills, or can be used to more easily collect other forms of evidence, like a large piece of art or a sculpture created outside with natural materials—neither of which could be kept or stored easily), Skills checklists (Used to easily note which skills children have accomplished and when), Anecdotal notes (Used to record children’s words and actions) ; and Learning stories (Narrative account written by a teacher of an event that represents growth in a child; examples can be found at http://tomdrummond.com/learning-stories) (Howard & Aiken, 2015). Students create products for the collection of the assessment portfolio.
4. Discuss how you will include families in the portfolio assessment process, and why this important to the portfolio process
I would include families in the portfolio assessment process by informing the parents on the types of assessments and portfolios that will be used for their child in the classroom. I will achieve this by sending home newsletters and notes on the purpose of assessments and the advantages of them being performed. I will also include the families by giving them checklists and things to observe their child doing at home. Sometimes children act differently at home than what they do at school. This is important to the portfolio process so parents and guardians will know how their child is developing. This will give them hands on experiences to help the teacher assess their child. Most importantly, parents provide support and encouragement. All members are responsible for collaborating and reviewing entries while learning from the process (Howard & Aiken, 2015).
5. Explain how the portfolio process you will use with children mirrors the portfolio you are creating for your final project in this course.
The portfolio process I will use with children are skills checklists, anecdotal notes, writing samples, and photographs. Because I did not have permission to take photographs of the student I am assessing for my final project, I only used skills checklists, anecdotal notes, and writing samples. The skills checklists and anecdotal notes have given strong evidence on the strengths and weaknesses of the student I am assessing. These forms of assessments will help to complete the portfolio process for the student chosen, and will also provide information needed to complete the project.
Reference:
Howard, V. F., & Aiken, E. Assessing learning and development in young children. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education (2015).
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