Thank you for your comments. I just love the way you framed the “just-in-time” thinking bit. I too love the blogsphere for that.

I do have a ProD blogfolio running, and I liked your ideas of mentoring the portfolio work. I think that’s a very important part of the puzzle - to show how, not just tell how. Show that you too, as teacher, also buy into the idea of continuous development. Great idea, didn’t think of it! - In case you want to see my umm…very much in development blogfolio, head here: http://teacherindevelopment.wordpress.com/
I warn you now though that I’m in the middle of preparing a writing workshop, and many of my entries have been around sentence construction. (If anyone reading this is a grammar/writing jedi, I’d love your feedback!)

I agree with your 2.0 idea around helping teachers dive into professional portfolios. I think ease of use is a huge factor, ignore it at your peril. My experience with tech and teachers so far has been…well…on phobia level. They just don’t like the stuff. The easier it is to make work, the better your results will be. Please do keep me informed of what happens with your grant.

Thanks Graham

You said: “…the learner collects and selects as much authentic on-the-job language use as possible…” - I really love this, and wonder how they go about selecting their samples. Do you have any hand in that…training about how to select and how to add to their portfolio etc? How do you get them to buy into the whole process?

How do you decide, formally, what things go into the portfolio. Do you have a split critera where the student decides some content, and you decide others? Are you working towards any specific benchmark or proficiency standard in your portfolio work?

I will be eagerly watching English360 for anything you post around this stuff!

Thanks Cleve.

It is hard when you feel constrained isn’t it? In my case, out company doesn’t currently even use portfolios in any way. Management, however, has been wide open to the idea - though very much in the dark about it like myself. So I’m pioneering I guess. Learning the best I can, and trying to implement in a way that makes sense, and in a way that I can explain to everyone else. I will let you know how this all works out…

1) connection to real-world language performance: the learner collects and selects as much authentic on-the-job language use as possible (email, powerpoint, presentation/conference call audio, peer assessment (not strictly a portfolio item though). The change over time is what we look for (we = learner + us). The metalearning benefits of learner selection and diagnosis are usually pretty good.

2) For assessment we use a multi-modal scheme where we look at self-assessment (a report), teacher qualitative assessment (ditto), teacher tests, peer assessment, and standardized tests. That way we get the hard (albeit limited) data of, say, the TOEIC or the BULATS, but not as a unique indicator - it’s together with the other cool stuff. So HR is happy but we’ve managed to provide the learner with more valid feedback than any one method on its own (and qualitative teacher assessments alone are just as flawed as the BULATS).

We throw everything together in a formatted document (digital or a simple notebook) that we use as a key part of every class, even if tangentally.

That’s the short version: I should post on this and detail it out!