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Student ePortfolios

7/29/2012

13 Comments

 
Last school year, my students created ePortfolios for the first time.  I had never done a project like this with a class before, but because of my interest in technology, I thought this was a wonderful project for us to do!  In the BC curriculum it states that students should “select images from their own portfolio for class presentation
and/or public display, and give reasons for this selection” and to “compare a developed artwork to their initial drafts and explain how their ideas have changed and developed,” in regards to Art.  Well, I believe it is important to be able to do this in all subject areas, not just art.  So I explained to my students that we were going to look through all of our work and choose the things we were most proud of; the projects that we learned the most from, and the assignments that really showed our learning and we were going to put those works onto a website where we could showcase them.  They were very excited to start and what I love about this project is that I did not have any samples to show them (as this was new for me) and so they really got to make their ePortfolios their own!  Again something that we all strive for in education, to have students take ownership of their learning!  This is also echoed by the Ministry of Education as they encourage us to help students build “key competencies like self-reliance, critical thinking, [and] inquiry".  We decided to build our portfolios using weebly because it is a very user friendly site and my students were familiar with it because our class website is a weebly site which I created.  The picture below will take you to one student's ePortfolio where he has kindly linked all of my students' ePortfolios.
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They were a success!  The students loved creating their own websites and I loved seeing them reflect upon previous projects and assignments!  Many students even created extra pages where they discussed items of importance to them that were not a part of our learning over the year (such as a page devoted to Martin Luther King, Jr—one student's hero, and a dolphin information page).  They taught themselves how to add music to their websites (something I did not know how to do, but was thrilled about because they were teaching themselves and each other how to do something new!!  Another skill we want our students to have—self-sufficiency and the ability to learn on their own). 
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If you haven't tried creating portfolios (electronic or otherwise), I highly suggest you give it a chance next year.  They are a wonderful way to allow students to be creative, express themselves and become more reflective of their learning and growth.  

One regret I have is that we did not start the ePortfolios earlier in the school year.  We only began in third term, and therefore we only had a few months left of school to document.  Next year, we will begin at the start of the year and we will continue all year long (and hopefully even into future grades, as my teaching partner, Hugh McDonald, show them to the rest of the staff at our school as well as the high school our students feed into.  Our vision being that students would begin these ePortfolios in Kindergarten and continue them right through high school.  

I also regret not giving the students time to peer-assess their portfolios.  While we were working on them, they did, of course, collaborate and help each other out at times, but they weren't given specific time to share.  Sharing with peers and giving feedback is, of course, a key part of any publishing process and in our rush to finish them before the end of the year, we overlooked that step.  Next year, we will move slower (and stop along the way to share) and I expect their ePortfolios to be even more amazing!

It has been suggested to me by many people on twitter that I use evernote next year as a way of keeping track of the students learning and then the website as a way of showcasing the best.  I am currently leaning towards that route for next year (as I can see the value of having the two types) and am going to spend a day with AnneMarie Middleton (fellow Surrey school teacher) working through how to make this work, before making up my mind. 

But I wonder…have you created ePortfolios with your students?  What format do you use?  What will you use next year? Why?  I would love to hear from you!
13 Comments
Kris McGuire link
7/29/2012 03:27:27 pm

I love your students' eportfolios. For starting later in the year, they still gathered quite a few artifacts.I loved how you included Genius Hour as a subject. That's a super idea. Did you create a form for your students to complete for each artifact...questions that would help them focus on what they learned, why they chose it, etc.

Since our school mail is through Google and every one of our students has a Google account, we created place for all middle school students (7th and 8th) to create a portfolio. Our district goal is to also create a K-12 eportfolio. We will start this upcoming school year. I used to do paper portfolios and the students shared them with their parents at conferences but that's it.

I agree with you about giving the students time for peer assessment and for sharing their portfolios. I think I will have my students assess their peers at the end of first semester and then of course at the end of the year. It would be fun to Skype with another class that does portfolios and have the students choose two or three artifacts to share. Or allow other classes access to their portfolios for comments and suggestions before presenting the final one.

Did you grade their portfolios? If you did, did you use a rubric?

I think it's a great idea to keep track of their learning and while I haven't used Evernote, another 8th grade teacher has and says it's very easy to use. Another way I have kept track of their learning is through backchannel because I can print the students' comments.

I'm just rambling as ideas come to me.

It was great reading your post and learning what others are doing.

Reply
Gallit Zvi link
7/30/2012 04:01:14 am

Hi Kris,

Thank you for your comment!
I did not grade the ePortfolios...I just wanted them to think about their learning & see where they needed to improve & that did work! A few of my students came up to me and said they would like to redo this or that before putting it online and asked if that was ok, and of course my answer was "YES"!

Did you grade yours? I never even thought about grading them! But it would be nice to come up with a rubric as a class and then have students self and peer assess using that rubric. Do you have one? I think I would like to have my students come up with it...

You have given me a lot to think about, Kris! Thank you!
I look forward to chatting with you about our progress with this next year.

Take care,
Gallit

Reply
Joy Kirr link
7/30/2012 06:27:40 am

Gallit,
I have never done e-portfolios. That being said, I've been thinking of them since I got on Twitter in February (it was all the buzz), and thought I'd attack one thing at a time. It was Genius Hour at that point!

Anyway, reading your post encouraged me to share with you a few things I learned (or was at least exposed to) at the BLC conference in Boston a couple of weeks ago. Ready??

I heard Tom Daccord (@ThomasDaccord) at his session titled, "Assessment 2.0." He spoke of what you first wrote - having students identify was is good, and why it's good, then what they would change, and why... He related this to presentations as well. He suggested we ask students - What were you trying to accomplish? What did you create and why? why did you choose that music... that pace... that picture... that text over the pictures...? What are your sources and how do you know they are credible? Did you accomplish your goal? Did the audience get it? How do you know? Geez. It made me think of their Genius Hour presentations, and how there is so much MORE to a presentation than pictures and bullet points!!

Anyway, this brings me to my next point. Grades. Audience members wondered how can we grade this??? Here's the site for rubrics he showed us. YES! Actual RUBRICS!

http://edtechteacher.org/index.php/teaching-technology/assessment-rubrics

Another one I was tweeted when I tweeted out the above resource... This one from @BalancEdTech...

https://balancedtech.wikispaces.com/Assessment

Or, Tom (EdTechTeacher) suggested you make them WITH the students, which would go along with my next share for you...

Who owns the learning? This is the message from Alan November (@NLearning) we've been getting in our district (on our second year now). I think portfolios from grades Kindergarten on are a fantastic idea. When students are aware of what they're doing well, they have the urge to do even better. Every day is a chance to get better - at what they're doing well, and what they struggle with. By choosing what goes into their portfolios (good - no student examples to show them!), they decide what's important, and this goes along our lines of Genius Hour, too, doesn't it? Let the students own it. Own what they learn, and what they excel at.

Making these portfolios accessible to the WORLD... That's authentic right there. Even if you don't get around to having them look at each other's work, maybe you could tweet some of them out and our students can look at them? This is one reason I created a class Twitter account. I want my students to see what others are doing and learning. WE share our myriad ideas - shouldn't they?

As for Evernote - I LOVE IT! I haven't used it with my students yet, as I was just exposed to it in February, but it could be the way to go. ?? I hope you and Ann can get something figured out.

Phew! Enough rambles from me. I hope this gets you thinking even MORE! Let me know if there is one specific rubric you like - I haven't had time to peruse them yet!

Sincerely,
Joy

Reply
Kris McGuire link
7/30/2012 11:09:40 am

Joy,
I love the questions from Thomas Daccord. Those help the students to recognize why they did what they did; we can see their thought processes. When I was earning my national boards, a phrase our mentor used repeatedly was "be consciously cognizant" of why you do what you do.

Thanks for the assessment websites. I love rubrics but hate to make them. It's nice to have one to start with and then revise as needed.

I would love to set up a classroom twitter, but last year, twitter was blocked for the students...too many high school students tweeting a lot during classroom time. We'll see about this year.

Reply
Gallit Zvi link
8/1/2012 05:03:17 am

Joy,

This is fantastic! Thank you for the links and for "introducing" my to these new great educators! I look forward to going through all of this :)

Gallit

Reply
Melissa Dalgleish
8/1/2012 03:17:42 pm

Hi Gallit - I was at the George Cuoros presentation a couple of months ago, wondering 'where to start' with e-portfolios. Thank you for giving me my starting point:) Your students' portfolios are fabulous!

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Julie_Clarke link
11/12/2012 07:41:57 am

I love this idea Gallit! I am hoping to set up e-portfolios with my students in the New Year. What a great way for them to document their work and learn at the same time. I want to check out more examples...

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    My name is Gallit Zvi and I am an Elementary School Teacher and Vice Principal in Surrey, BC. I am also a blogger and co-author of The Genius Hour Guidebook.
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