Initiating
Portfolios in Your School
Case Study #4
You are in a
district with one large elementary school (K-6) of 700 students and one large
middle school (7-8) of 300 students. The school buildings are relatively
new, and equipped with new technology and computer labs. Each building
has a technology coordinator. Technology skills are taught as one of the
specials by the tech coordinator. Your students have individual logins to
the system. You do have several teachers in both buildings who are veteran
teachers with no desire to use technology in their classroom.
Table
of
Contents
1 Purpose
2 Curriculum
3 Requirements
4 Reviewer
5 Assessment
6 Organization
7 Storage
8 Implementation
This case study was contributed by the following ICT Summer Institute 2006 participants:
Bonnie Beadle, Jean Kobeski, Heidi Kuttner,
Tamara Lever, Pam McLeod, Maureen Meyer, Rose O’Neill-Verney
1.
Establish the purpose for the portfolio based on your district’s
goals and mission.
The
purpose of each student's ICT portfolio is to document attainment of district
standards and to demonstrate achievement in one or more content
areas, student reflection and interests, and technological
ability. It will be both formative and summative in nature. Digital
content will be selected from existing classroom activities into which a
technical component has been integrated. An acceptable score on the completed
portfolio will be the prerequisite for students to enroll in advanced high
school computer classes.
In our
district, portfolios should be both formative and
summative. Teachers will designate a number of existing projects as
summative portfolio candidates each year, from which students will select their
actual portfolio artifacts, as follows:
|
Grade Level(s) |
Total Number of Artifacts / Year |
Artifacts Per
Core Curricular Area * |
Artifact(s)
per UA ** Course *** |
Reflections |
|
K-2 |
2 |
N/A |
N/A |
2 (include curricular and
technology content) |
|
3-5 |
4 |
1 |
N/A |
6 (2 technology; 4 curricular) |
|
6 |
9 |
1 |
1 |
6 (2 technology; 4 curricular) |
|
7 |
13 |
2 |
1 |
6 (2 technology; 4 curricular) |
|
8 |
13 |
2 |
1 |
6 (2 technology; 4 curricular) |
|
|
||||
|
* Math, Science, Social Studies, English/Language
Arts ** Music, Art, Language, Technology, Industrial Arts, Family/Consumer
Sciences, Health, PE, etc. *** assumes 5 UA
courses/student/year |
||||
K-2
students will select 2 projects per year to include in their portfolio.
In grades 3-5, students will choose 1 project per core curricular area per year
from which to select their artifacts. In grades 6-8, students will choose
2 projects per core curricular area. Additionally, they will select one
artifact from each "special" or "Unified Arts" course for
their portfolio. Summative portfolio artifacts will be regular classroom
projects which are graded or assessed for content by teachers.
As the
formative piece of each portfolio, each student will review and reflect upon
the technology aspects of their portfolio and artifacts twice per
year, and upon the core subject areas once each year. The technology
teacher will assist the students in technology reflection, while all
teachers will assist in core subject area reflection.
The final
portfolio product will be assessed by a team using a standard rubric at the end
of the 6th and 8th grades.
Although
the primary responsibility for the introduction of technology concepts and
skills lies with the tech coordinator/teachers, the
application of these skills is the responsibility of all teachers in all
content areas. Additionally, the tech coordinator will assist teachers in
selecting and integrating portfolio artifacts relative to the NETS Standards.
2.
Determine how existing school or district curriculum aligns with
the ICT standards.
All
teachers will use existing curriculum activities/projects to produce digital
artifacts. Those teachers who already utilize technology integration
may identify appropriate projects as digital artifacts. Those
teachers needing assistance with technology integration will consult with the
tech coordinator and grade-level team at the start of the school year to
identify existing projects which could be integrated. Administrators will
monitor implementation of the digital portfolio project and will mentor
teachers as needed, and provide access to Professional Development
activities when necessary.
When
existing activities are selected, they should be aligned with NH State and
NETS technology standards with assistance form the technology
coordinator. Additionally, depending on school focus and test
results, some grades will need to focus more on subjects like math, reading,
and writing.
It is
crucial that a student's artifacts reflect a cross-section
of curricular areas over time. Although some grade-level teachers
may focus more on certain core subjects one year, such as math, reading,
or writing (and if that is necessary due to a school's focus and/or test
results, we highly encourage this!), the student's portfolio should show a
cross-section of subjects over time. A subject-area checklist will be provided
by the Administration and will be tied to an internal database to
cross-reference each artifact to its applicable content areas. This
checklist will be an online form and will be updated by a student's teacher
each time an artifact is selected for portfolio inclusion. Reports
generated from the database will provide at-a-glance measures of diversity
of artifact content areas over time.
Determine the content requirements that will be placed in the
portfolio.
In our schools, teachers
will designate a number of existing projects as portfolio candidates each year:
·
K-2 students will select 2 projects per year to include in their
portfolio.
·
In grades 3-5, students will choose 1 project per core curricular
area per year from which to select their artifacts.
·
In grades 6-8, students will choose 2 projects per core curricular
area. Additionally, they will select one artifact from each
"special" or "Unified Arts" course for their
portfolio.
Each student will review
and reflect upon the technology aspects of their portfolio and artifacts twice
per year, and upon the core subject areas once each year. We wish
to emphasize that this is a breathing document and portfolio artifacts should
provide a cross-section of curricular content over the student's K-8
career. In Grades K-2, the requirement of 2 artifacts per year is quite
conservative, and this plan should be revisited in 5 years to determine if this
number should be increased as teachers' and student technology skills
improve.
|
Content Area |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
|||||
|
|
Req’d |
Comp |
Req’d |
Comp |
Req’d |
Comp |
Req'd |
Comp |
Req'd |
Comp |
|
|
2 |
|
2 |
|
2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lang Arts |
2 |
|
2 |
|
2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Math |
2 |
|
2 |
|
2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Science |
2 |
|
2 |
|
2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
World Lang |
1 |
|
1 |
|
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tech Ed |
0 |
|
0 |
|
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
FCS |
0 |
|
0 |
|
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Health |
0 |
|
0 |
|
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
Number of activities completed by student XXX, with examples provided
below:
|
Content Area |
K |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
|
|
2 |
1 |
1 |
... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
English
& Language Arts |
2 |
1 |
1 |
... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Math |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Science
|
0 |
1 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Social
Studies |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Arts |
0 |
1 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
World
Languages |
0 |