Christensen Chapter 7

I'm having a hard time explaining what I exactly feel about portfolios so maybe by the end of this blog it will become clear to the reader and myself. I do think that students should keep all their work so they can gather it up at the end of the semester and see how they have progressed and reflect on it. But I think that the grading for this "portfolio" should be constructed in a way that honors the students achievement not point out how "you did do well here, but you need a little more work here." I think portfolios should be an opportunity for students to redo work they have not done well on and turn in that final copy and the draft before and reflect on why they choose to improve it, how they went about the assignment differently and why is this final copy better. I do believe that it is interesting for the students and the teacher to see the work they have done, like Christensen has mentioned. It shows the student all its accomplishments and gives them something to praise over, but it also gives teachers a way to see what worked for their students.

I like portfolios, its just that I think they could go both ways. What if the student doesn't have any work to put in their portfolio, or what if the student doesn't feel confident enough in there writing to turn in a final copy. I just think that portfolios should be choice and should be graded on a case by case basis...I think. Like I said I don't really know what I feel about portfolios exactly, but I know that if I do use them in my class, the will be used in a way for students to make up work that has been lost or work that was not done so well the first time........