Types of Portfolio and Stages in Implementing Portfolio Assessment

Types of Portfolio

There are many different types of portfolios, each of which can serve one or more specific purposes as part of an overall school or classroom assessment program. The following is a list of the types most often cited in the literature:

• Documentation Portfolio: This type is also known as the "working" portfolio. Specifically, this approach involves a collection of work over time showing growth and improvement reflecting students' learning of identified outcomes. The documentation portfolio can include everything from brainstorming activities to drafts to finished products. The collection becomes meaningful when specific items are selected out to focus on particular educational experiences or goals. It can include the bet and weakest of student work.
• Process Portfolio: This approach documents all facets or phases of the learning process. They are particularly useful in documenting students' overall learning process. It can show how students integrate specific knowledge or skills and progress towards both basic and advanced mastery. Additionally, the process portfolio inevitably emphasizes students' reflection upon their learning process, including the use of reflective journals, think logs, and related forms of metacognitive processing.
• Showcase Portfolio: This type of portfolio is best used for summative evaluation of students' mastery of key curriculum outcomes. It should include students' very best work, determined through a combination of student and teacher selection. Only completed work should be included. In addition, this type of portfolio is especially compatible with audio-visual artifact development, including photographs, videotapes, and electronic records of students' completed work. The showcase portfolio should also include written analysis and reflections by the student upon the decision-making process(es) used to determine which works are included.

Stages in Implementing Portfolio Assessment

1. Identifying teaching goals to assess through portfolio
• the first step is to establish the teaching goals
• it must be clear what the teacher hopes to achieve in teaching
• ask the following questions:
• what do i want the students to learn?
2. Introducing the Idea of Portfolio Assessment to your class
• introduce the concept of portfolio to the class
• provide some examples
3. Specification of Portfolio Content
• specify what and how much entries have to be included in the portfolio
• entries can take many forms such as written, audio, and video-recorded items, artifacts (e.g. annotated drawing, a model), dialogue and or journals...
• specify for each entry how it will be assessed
• acquaint the students with the scoring guide/rating scales before performing the task
4. Giving clear and detailed guidelines for portfolio presentation
• set clear and detailed guidelines on how portfolios will be presented
• explain the need for clear and attractive presentation, dated drafts, attached reflections or comment cards
5. Informing key school officials, parent and other stakeholders
• do not attempt to use portfolio assessment method without notifying your school head, this will serve as a precaution in case students will later complain about your new assessment procedure
6. Development of Portfolio
• some portion of the class time can be devoted to student-teacher dialogues and conferences with other teachers in relation to the task of preparing the portfolio
• stress the importance of reflection and self-assessment while preparing the portfolio
• essential questions that the teachers can use to guide students in reflections and self-assessment:
• what did I learn from the activity?
• which is my best piece?
• how can I improve this? (this can be done by class brain storming or in pairs, "portfolio partners", who help each other select samples of their work, and who can comments on their work...)
• to ensure that portfolio represents students' work and accomplishments, require some items to be done completely in class
• ask also the students to explain in their reflections who helped them improve their work (it can be their peer, parents, friend, thru internet...) and what they learned from revising their work