Teacher in Development

An interesting post over at Helen Barrett’s blog. (If you’re interested in portfolios, you should be following Barrett. In my humble opinion, she’s a portfolio jedi.) 

E-Portfolios for Learning: Linking ePortfolios and Student Achievement?

In Barrett’s post, a reader asks if there is a link between portfolio use and an overall improvement in student achievement. (Read: test scores.) 

I think Barrett’s response shows what a portfolio is for - it’s not so much about assessing learning, it’s about engagement for learning. 

That’s a big paradigm shift isn’t it?

Both items are important: We need to know what we’ve learned, but we also need to be engaged and "sucked into" the process of learning.  According to Barrett, that’s one of the things portfolios are great at doing.

"However, there is substantial research that supports the use of formative, classroom assessment (assessment FOR learning as opposed to assessment OF learning) with increased student achievement. Look at the meta-analysis conducted by Black and Wiliam in the U.K.: http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kbla9810.htm
Also, the Assessment Reform Group: http://www.qca.org.uk/7659.html

That type of formative assessment is well facilitated using a portfolio for that purpose…"(Linking ePortfolios and Student Achievement?, Barrett)

Classroom assessment typically delivers a grade. Portfolios seem to address something far more cooler: student engagement and motivation to learn.

But how can I really help my students make that level of connection with a portfolio? How can I move them beyond the erroneous idea that a portfolio is just another hoop to jump through to get the grade? (The teacher said I had to do this, so I’m doing it. Totally missed the point.) 

This is becomming a very important issue for me as I begin to learn more about my role as an English teacher. I’m learning that I’ve utterly failed if my students continue seeing me as their solution to learning English. I’m learning that I need to be an equipper who actively prepares and pushes students to step out of the classroom nest. I’m learning that I must work hard to teach myself out of a job - which means it’s a good thing to have students who can say they are able to do this on their own, and therefore it’s a really bad thing to have students who never leave the nest.

I’m introducing portfolios to my students for this purpose: not like a tool to generate a grade, but like a baton in a relay race. My hope is that they pass me, and use their portfolio as a tool for continued engagement in English - outside the classroom, and long after we’ve stopped running together.