Using Portfolio Assessment
Use compilation and reflection for authentic end-of-semester assessment
The following instructions take you through the process of portfolio assessment, an activity that can be used at nearly every level of student writing.
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Why Portfolios?
I initially fell in love with portfolios during undergrad, as I put together binders of my work from an entire semester of writing class. The 1.5-inch binders burst at the seams with drafts full of comments from my instructors and writing group members, the gleaming final drafts a testament to the work I had done all semester. The practice of doing it myself taught me how to effectively implement portfolios into my own classroom during my first year of teaching, and I never stopped. Whenever I have had a course that is heavy in writing instruction, I have made portfolios my final exam.
In the early years, it meant tracking piles of student drafts, often having folders in my classroom for students to safeguard their work so they didn’t lose it or have it damaged in their backpacks or lockers. As most of my student work has gone digital, I now have my students complete digital writing portfolios, which brings with it a new kind of organization, reminding students to make folders in their Google Drives and track every single draft they turn in to me. (As an additional safeguard against AI and LLM use, I have students make a copy of each draft in the process and retitle each one so I can see their tracked changes from one draft to the next. It doesn’t work perfectly because they aren’t as tech proficient as I would like them to be, but I keep repeating the instructions until they consistently do it.)
I believe in portfolios because it is the best way for our students to look at all of their work all at once. It encourages higher-order thinking skills, taking students outside of grades as evaluation to process and progress as evaluation. It doesn’t let kids off the hook for not completing their work. It drives home the importance of doing every step of the writing process and turning in their final drafts.
How I Collect Student Work
When my students were still turning in their work on paper, I collected it in folders in a filing cabinet. I would end the semester with piles of binders of different colors and thickness, spending hours paging through each one and marking up my gradesheet.
Once my students had access to the Google Suite, I switched over to electronic portfolios. Now I have my students start their Google Sites for their portfolios as soon as they finish their first paper. I give them the basic details of what they will need to put into their portfolio by the end of the semester, so they can start building and designing it early. I put together this Google Slides presentation to help guide them through the process.
My portfolio requirements change with each course I teach, but this is the list of requirements I gave my Pre-AP sophomores when I had them complete a yearlong portfolio. I now teach Dual Credit Composition, and while my teaching partner and I have plans to change some items in the portfolio next year, these are the requirements we gave our students last year.
Final Thoughts
Yes, the grading is relatively easy, but it can still be time-consuming to check to make sure students have everything completed and that they have given you thoughtful reflections. There have been many times I have told myself it would just be easier to give them all a multiple-choice test at the end of a semester, but that wouldn’t be an authentic writing assessment. They need to be able to see how far they have come in a semester or a year. They need to see that writing isn’t about perfection but about progress. And even your struggling writers will be able to see that they have grown.
It’s an assessment that rewards both the student and the teacher, and that is worth all of the work.
Now your turn
What have you done with your classes? Share with fellow teachers below.