Portfolio

Portfolio assessment is a multi-faceted process characterized by the following recurrent qualities: * It is continuous and ongoing, providing both formative (i.e., ongoing) and summative (i.e., culminating) opportunities for monitoring students' progress toward achieving essential outcomes. * It is multidimensional, i.e., reflecting a wide variety of artifacts and processes reflecting various aspects of students' learning process(es). * It provides for collaborative reflection, including ways for students to reflect about their own thinking processes and metacognitive introspection as they monitor their own comprehension, reflect upon their approaches to problem-solving and decision-making, and observe their emerging understanding of subjects and skills. * They clearly reflect stated learner outcomes identified in the core or essential curriculum that students are expected to study. * They focus upon students' performance-based learning experiences as well as their acquisition of key knowledge, skills, and attitudes. * They contain samples of work that stretch over an entire marking period, rather than single points in time. * They contain works that represent a variety of different assessment tools. * They contain a variety of work samples and evaluations of that work by the student, peers, and teachers, possible even parents' reactions.
Source: Paul S. George, (1995). What Is Portfolio Assessment Really and How Can I Use It in My Classroom? Gainesville, FL: Teacher Education Resources.

Purposes of the Portfolio
The Professional Portfolio we describe at PortfolioMaker.ca differs from others you may see elsewhere in that it includes the following two main purposes: * To demonstrate your professional knowledge and skill in what some people call teaching 'competencies' and which we call 'Dimensions of Teaching'. * To emphasize your reflections on your entries. Your reflections will prove to be an integral part of the