Did you ever wonder at the end of the school year how you were going to fit one more piece of paper in your students folders in your class bin? Thoughts in your head may have been something like this: “If I only had a bigger bin.” “If I had less students in my class, all of my folders would fit nicely.” “Next year, is the teacher really going to look at all these folders?” If you’re a Language Arts teacher you may have asked yourself at least one of these questions...or all three!
If you’re tired of getting your hands smooshed and jammed in-between two thick folders, and physically moving them to the teacher(s) that’s a grade above you, then hopefully, I have your attention. However, the true educational benefits of having your students create Digital portfolios (or E-Portfolios) is to support student learning and growth. Students are growing up tech-savvy and know how to use technology to their advantage. As educators, we need to meet the needs of all students and embrace the digital society that we live in. “The goal of a digital portfolio is to hand over the reins to the students and allow them to become responsible for demonstrating their learning and reflection.”
Since September, we’ve been working with the 7th and 8th grade ELA classes, as well as the science teachers from the middle and high schools. The 8th grade ELA teachers approached us back in September to see if we would work with their classes to help them set up their digital portfolios. Our lessons with the students comprised of a Google Drive overview:
- how to create folders and subfolders
- how to move documents into a folder
- how to share a folder
- the importance of titling every document
- how to organize their work.
In conjunction, we then worked with the teachers to help them create their main folder and subfolders for each of their classes. As a result, the teachers main folder for the current school year, can easily be shared with their administrators. Mr. Don Clark, a science teacher from the High School, shared with his department a Google Doc with directions on how to set up student portfolios. Ms. DeMuro from GLC, used Google Slides to design individual digital portfolios. Her students are able to track their data, check their growth, create beginning and mid-year goals, and take ownership of their learning. Our vision is to someday have students create a “showcase portfolio” to display their interests and their best chosen work. This will provide college prospects with a complete, in depth portfolio when reviewing a student’s application.
Ten reasons to use digital portfolios:
- Expands on the repertoire of techniques available to students and educators.
- Struggling students are given alternative modes of expression and means to demonstrate learning increase in self confidence and achievement
- Accessible classroom learning for all stakeholders.
- Focuses on effective oral and written communication; engages students in practicing these important abilities.
- Allows students to track and demonstrate their growth over longer periods of time.
- Cost savings for the district
- Saving paper = more trees (Green Ribbon Schools)
- Increased opportunity for collaboration
- Facilitates timely feedback
- Overall time saver for teachers.
What should a digital portfolio include?
- Work should be related to the curriculum and engage students in meaningful learning.
- Clear standards and criteria for excellence - detailed rubric.
- Student choice on the work selected to showcase their learning.
- Student reflection on each performance to clarify why the pieces were chosen.
Digital portfolios are becoming increasingly popular in classrooms throughout the country. There are many tools to choose from but the most popular are the freebies, such as Google, Seesaw, Pathbrite, Evernote, WordPress...
"5 Reasons To Use Digital Portfolios In Your Classroom – TeachThought." https://www.teachthought.com/technology/5-reasons-to-use-digital-portfolios-in-your-classroom/. Accessed 1 Dec. 2017.
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