Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Curriculum And Development In Early Education

Carol Gestwick, (1995) in Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Curriculum and Development in Early Education, postulates that, “Portfolios are collections or samplings of information relating to each child’s development progress in an educational setting.” In addition, portfolio is a collection of student’s work which is being collected over a period of time, so that the class teacher, principal, vice principal and parents can view the child’s progression in the various subject disciplines offered, such as, Integrated Studies, Mathematics, Language Arts and also Health Family Life Education. Janine Batzles’s book, Portfolio Assessment and Evaluation contends that, “A portfolio should be a celebration of the child’s unique abilities, achievements and progress, displayed through authentic samples. I do agree with Batzles statement as students ought to be the ones selecting their own
Students selecting their samples of work will be able to assess their work throughout a unit or school year. Portfolio is an on-going process of the assessment of a child’s knowledge. There are different kinds of portfolios. The first is documentation portfolio this entails a collection of the student’s work over a period of time highlighting the growth and development of what the child is capable of doing. In this particular category, the teacher ought to include the best and weakest samples of work in the portfolio. The second type of portfolio is showcase. Showcase portfolio focuses on the mastery key curriculum outcomes. The teacher along with the students decides on the samples of work that must be placed in the showcase portfolio. In this portfolio only completed work is placed in the portfolio. In addition, photographs, video tapes and electronic records can