Selecting Samples of Student's Work

Building a student portfolio isn't something that happens over night or just at the end of a school year. In fact, it is best done little by little throughout the entire school year. By starting your child's portfolios early, the task is quite manageable.

Each year, I compile a student portfolio to showcase my child's school work. Prior to the start of the school year, I obtain a large three ring binder, which usually gets some decorative paper inserted into the cover to make it pretty. Then I set about printing off a title page. The title page includes student's name, grade level, school year, and school name. Once this is done, I shelve the binder and await the student's completed work.

{math test}

As the year progresses, I keep a keen eye out for good samples of my child's work. Notice I didn't say perfect papers. Showcasing perfection is not the goal of a portfolio. Displaying growth is. I use the following criteria for deciding if a sample should be included or not.

Samples of student's work should display...

• positive examples of their current abilities. Your child bombed a test even though they knew the material - don't include that!
• progress. Work showing improvement over time like the writing process for a paper are excellent examples which clearly showcases progress. Additionally, selecting samples from the beginning, middle, and end of a school year easily demonstrates growth.
• proof of education. By pulling together samples of a student's own work, you are clearly offering evidence that you did in fact teach your child throughout the school year. As someone who has reviewed portfolios for years, I want to see your student's actual work, not a listing of accomplishments with no substance to validate these claims.

The goal of a portfolio is to display growth over the entire school year.

{worksheet from Travel the World lessons}

A child's portfolio should answer these questions:

Has this child...

• learned anything?
• been exposed to great ideas?
• participated in a neat club or activity?
• visited a unique place?
• read a variety of books?
• shown a particular interest or talent, and developed it?
• grown in any area of life/study?

Choose samples which help answer any and all of these questions.

{project from Exploring Biomes of the World lessons}

5W's and 1H of Selecting Student's Work Samples:

Who should choose the samples? You, as their teacher and parent, are the ideal candidate. You know your child's strengths and weaknesses, and can best decide which worksheets, papers, projects, and tests to include.

What kind of samples? Samples should reflect the type of work done throughout the school year. If your child writes written summaries/narrations twice a week, then you should include some of these in the portfolio. If your child learns best by filling in worksheets and taking a weekly quiz, then include some samples of each.

When should the samples be picked? Ideally, throughout the entire school year, you can and should be adding to the portfolio.

Where should I look for samples? Major projects, papers, and tests are easily identified as samples to potentially include, but don't overlook daily seat work. Sometimes, daily practice better showcases a student's progress than tests. Try to include a little of everything your child does.

How many samples? Major subjects, which are those the child spends more time studying or working through, should be represented with more samples. Minor subjects, though important and need represented, should not have as many samples as a major subject does.

Why should I do all this work? Most importantly, it is easier to build a student portfolio by focusing on the why. A portfolio offers you and your student:

• Remembrance - One day, you and your student's will look back on their work and school years with great fondness. A portfolio will offer you a way to remember the activities from each year.
• Sense of Accomplishment - Over the course of one year, your student will accomplish a lot. They will learn and grow in many ways. A portfolio showcases some of these.
• Proof of Education and Academic Progress - In addition to these two benefits, a portfolio is a handy way to prove your student has received an education.

Creating a Homeschool Portfolio

Sometime during the fall, I mentioned the importance of building a portfolio over the course of an entire school year, rather than waiting until the end.  Now that the end of the year has arrived, our family is putting the finishing touches on our children's portfolios. 

The purpose of a portfolio is to show a student's progress throughout the school year.

It is not to showcase perfection.

Instead, it should be an honest representation of the student's work.

It does not have to be all inclusive. 

How to Create a Homeschool Portfolio

Our portfolios are set up the same each year.  For each child, I begin with a three ring binder which has pockets on the inside covers.  We like to decorate our binders with patterned paper and colorful labels.  Other families may prefer to use a blank binder or allow the child to decorate the outside with his artwork.

Inside the binder, I create three basic divisions: administrative paper work, academic samples, and extra curricula activities.  Typically, I separate these sections with dividers. 

Administrative paper work includes the following:

• Title Page - This one page document displays the student's name, grade level, school year, and school name and address. 
• Student Page - The first page after our Title Page always has a photograph of the child taken sometime during the school year.  It is a must in all of our portfolios.
• Year End Report - Summarizing and evaluating the curriculum and the child's academic abilities, this report helps explain what the child did during the school year.
• Reading Log - This is a concise listing of all books read by the child or read aloud to the child throughout the entire school year.  I have included the forms we use every year on our printables page.
• Attendance Sheet - A single page with a grid of days denoting when the child completed school days.  Our state requires 180 days of school each year.
• Lesson Plans - Detailing each day and subject, these pages outline what was done when.

Academic Samples are taken from the entire year. 

For every subject I have mentioned in the Year End Report, I include a portion of the student's work.  The idea is to show progress, not perfection.  A child is still learning and will make mistakes.  I try to pick samples that are truly representative of their abilities and demonstrate the progress they have made. 

Any special projects that are too large to fit in a three ring binder are photographed and the picture is included with a brief description of the three dimensional or oversized project. 

This past year when my son completed his science fair project, we dismantled his tri-fold board and remounted the pieces to card stock.  This enabled the pieces to be included in his portfolio.

Notebooks or workbooks that we would rather not tear apart are included in the pockets of the binder.  Some smaller notebooks even fit into a protective sleeve or if the notebook already has holes, it can sometimes be placed right in the binder. 

Extra Curricula activities are, of course, all the extras.

The final section is a catch all for all the great field trips, activities, additional programs, and sports our children participated in during the school year.  Some years, I even include pictures of holidays, birthdays, and special events.

* Photographs in this post show samples from each of our children's portfolios.
* Later this week, I hope to outline how I write Year End Reports.

Building a Student Portfolio

"Isn't that something due at the end of the school year?" she hesitantly asks me.

"Yes, it is due at the end of May," I reply, "but I suggest you begin it now.  It is easier to build the portfolio over the course of a year, rather than all at once at year end."

We are sitting together at a long table with several portfolios laid open.  A first meeting between two homeschooling moms.  She embarking on her first year, and I, the one who will review her portfolio and year-end reports. 

She is already nervous and filled with questions.  Gently, I outline a possible procedure.  It is very similar to the one my portfolio leader gave me years ago when we first began homeschooling.  The advice hasn't changed much, withstanding all these years.  She listens intently, as I begin to explain.

...to read the full article, please visit Growing Your Homeschool today, where I am sharing some tips on building a portfolio.