Student Portfolio Planning Checklist

There are many benefits to using student portfolios in your classroom. However, in order for them to be effective, you must first spend some time answering a few important questions: What is their purpose, how will they be evaluated, and what should be included in student portfolios. The purpose of this checklist along with our list of suggested portfolio items is to help the classroom teacher begin to answer these questions.

Portfolio Planning Checklist

1. Who or what is being evaluated?

______Student
______Teacher
______Curriculum/program
______School

2. What is the purpose of the evaluation?

______Display best work and current performance
______Display growth over time
______Determine whether learning goals have been met
______Determine quality of instruction

3. What are additional purposes?

______Improved attitude toward school work
______Learn to evaluate own performance
______Increase critical thinking skills by developing evaluative criteria and using it to select work to include
______Improve instruction
______To enjoy the academic area
______Improve or demonstrate mastery of specific academic skills
(List) ______________________
______ To Learn Processes
______The writing process,
______Steps for attacking complex problems
______The scientific method
______How to write a research paper

4. What is the breadth of work to be covered?

______Number of school years
______Number of subjects
(List) __________________________________

5. Who is responsible for evaluating the portfolios?

______Students' classroom teacher
______Another classroom teacher
______In school panel
______State appointed individuals
______Other __________________________________