by Elizabeth Gilbert

Created on: February 18, 2009

Using portfolios to enhance the learning process in high school

Portfolios are very useful tools to show the progress of a student. It is a display of the many wonderful accomplishments the student has made within a given period of time. Each institution has a different perspective of what belongs in a portfolio and how one might be used.

As an ROP business teacher our students were required to do a portfolio each year. By March their folder should contain a variety of items including a letter of application, job application, letters of reference, resume, and a variety of other forms and projects.

On a given day the students were all bused to a county education office or one of the larger schools. They sat and waited their turn to be interviewed and have their portfolio judged. It was a long, tedious process but the students learned what it was to answer for their work, answer questions about their goals, and knew they had some improving to do.

Many years later the same process exists only now they've sped up the process, they have volunteers with little or no human resource experience interviewing the students and no one even looks at the portfolios let alone judge them.

The school where I teach used to do portfolios for every grade level every semester. The students were put into teams and the teachers coordinated the theme for the semester. Many of the class projects were cross curriculum units and the work became part of the portfolio. Then we took and entire day and evening for the presentations. Parents and community members would wander through the buildings and go to any group and ask them to present. It was meaningful, the students knew what they were talking about and did meet the requirements to move to the next level. There were no final exams but if students did not perform well or participate during the portfolio process they were held back.

After about six or seven years the enthusiasm began to wane. We got new administration who wanted a more traditional school but allowed us to do the portfolios as an extra incentive to keep parents and the community involved./ However, we then had to do the traditional grading and final exams. Needless to say the portfolio work went by the wayside and it was more of a project fair than actual portfolio presentations.

Portfolios are a great way to go if everyone involves believes in it and is ready to put in the time and effort to make it successful. No matter how in depth they are it is time consuming for everyone. Students need to understand the process from the beginning. They need to understand the importance of every assignment and mini project. It all has to be kept on file for later use so nothing should be sent home. Someone must take responsibility for keeping files for each student where data can be retreieved easily and students can access to help with the filing of their papers, etc.

So, if you have a committed faculty and staff portofolios are a good thing. They can keep the students on track and it's a great way to teach and follow each student's progress.

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