ASSESSING THE WHOLE CHILD Creating Powerful Portfolios and Student Led Conferences

The Purpose of a student led interview using a portfolio to drive it is to: Shift from the learning focus from the teacher to shared responsibility Engage Learners Give the children the ability to recognise the next steps in learning Builds independence and motivation Students want their parents to attend Focuses on how well the student has been doing Retention of knowledge Understanding of knowledge Active use of knowledge

Choice Questions to ask about Portfolios: What does a authentic student portfolio look like? What is its purpose at Glenferrie Primary school? Do they have a student voice in them? Where should we start? What will we use? Folders, display books, scrap books. Where will they be housed? Chair bags, central container. What materials will be needed? Paper, card, photocopying (colour?) Cost of the materials, does it come from the book list or a curriculum budget? Questions to ask about Student lead Interviews: How do we use these portfolios to drive these interviews? When do we do them? How do we prepare our children for these conferences? Where will the interview be held? What are the constraints? Timing, room

Specific Focus What will the conference and portfolio target? Below are some ideas: Myself as a learner: Learning Style preference Curriculum goals and reflections Rubrics related to topic work Explanations of feelings related to particular curriculum areas Results and reflections of tests Reflections of work samples The impact attitude has had on learning Areas for celebrating Areas needing strengthening and strategies to assist this Myself as a social being: Reflections on do you want to play Social goals and reflections Cooperative group work samples and reflections Areas for celebrating Friendship profile Personality profile The impact friendship has had on my ability to learn

An example of where we may head to:

Getting Started: Teach children how to self evaluate the skills that they are learning. Start with one dimension and make the learning explicit. Collect explicit examples of the children explaining the learning process in one dimension. Annodoctal notes or on film. Agree as a staff what we want a portfolio to look like.

Talk with students what is learning? What is the purpose of our portfolio? What should be in our portfolio? What should work in our portfolio look like? When will be work on our portfolios? Provide a process for the student lead interviews that is clear to the student, parent and teacher

The Journey The portfolios: 1.All of the work in the portfolios will be theirs 2.The content of the portfolio reflects their learning 3.They will be discussing with you their reasons for including or excluding items throughout the process 4.They are not doing it for you 5.They will be using the content to drive their own student lead conference with their parents.

Breakdown of a portfolio Task Front Page Contents Page Curriculum Goal setting Social Goal Setting Learning styles activity Agree upon what you are going to share with other groups.

The Journey Student lead conferences: Formal- Suggested for 5 & 6 level Arena Style- Secondary Expo- Suggested for P-4 level

Where is it going? Invite teachers to observe a student led conference Share formal feed back with all Share a video of a student led conference Promote what we are doing Share resources to improve the process Speak about your experiences with colleagues, honestly, openly and passionately

Evaluate the process What did you set out to achieve through developing a portfolio and a student lead conference? What does the portfolio tell people about you? What do you like most about your portfolio? What challenged you? How has the portfolio helped you? How could you make it more effective if you were to do it again? What surprised you? What has the portfolio helped you learn about yourself?