Friday, November 14, 2008

Portfolio

Portfolios are the place where you show what you know. Being a portfoli school, we try to assess students based on the work that they do against the standards of the school. Test grades and numbers are not nearly enough. A learner must truly understand their strengths and weaknesses and work to learn techniques to improve on both to meet standards.

Portfolio is a 4 part process:

  1. Collection: when you put all of your work (even work in progress) in your work in progress (WIP) folders to keep track of everything that you are doing. Examples of this can be homework, class work, labs, drafts, writing assignments and tests and quizzes
  2. Selection: when we complete a trimester and you want to show your exemplary work (your best work) so show evidence of your learning. It actually demonstrates the standards you've mastered in the class.
  3. Reflection: after you've completed a piece in any class, you must reflect on that assignment. What standards are you meeting or exceeding or still approaching? How can you improve or continue to excell at these standards? How can you adjust your learning to better meet the standards? How were you able to show what you know?
  4. Connection: Our classes don't happen in isolation and therefore our learning can't be. We must start to make better connections between what goes on in each of our classes. How does what you learn in once class help you with what you are doing in another class? How do the skills you are learning help contribute to making you more ready for life after school? How does your learning prepare you for more than just good grades?

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