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Let Flexibility Lead To Alignment

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  In my previous school district, I was the only teacher teaching a physics course with set, district-wide learning outcomes. These same outcomes were also taught in physics classrooms at the other high school in our district. But at our school, I was one of the 2 physics teachers. The other teacher taught the AP-level physics courses. So, in many ways, I had opportunities to incorporate strategies I believed were best for learners and that I found worked best for them without being seen as out of alignment with anyone in our building. My amazing friend and one of my teaching philosophy goddesses, Katie Novak, stated the following misconception about alignment: All teachers must deliver instruction in the exact same way. True alignment, she says, is about shared goals, rigor, and outcomes. Thank you, Katie! Katie has taught me to truly believe that learner variability is the rule, not the exception. I encourage you to take 10 minutes to listen to Katie Novak explain it in the ...
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Portfolios: Once More, With Feeling

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I had earlier talked about my new design for student portfolios in my class. After finishing out first unit I had students finish up the first unit entry.  For this first unit I pulled back a bit on my full outline I planned for each unit. It is my hope that this first unit page will serve as a toe dipping and in our second unit I can add more elements that I had intended to add originally.  I felt that getting students comfortable in the Google Sites environment the first go around and giving them some feedback was more important than having them start out with my full blown vision.

So, this go around our unit page was divided into 3 sections.

Objectives

For our first go around, I simply had students add the unit objectives to this section.  In our next unit, I plan to have them write them in their own words as well.

Narrative

The intention of this section is for students to reflect of their performance on formative quizzes.  In the first unit we had 2 quizzes.  I dropped the ball on this one.  We were pressed for time on the day of the 2nd quiz and I failed to tell students to do their reflection.  By the time I realized it, enough time had passed that it wouldn't be nearly as meaningful or relevant.  I want this section to be an immediate reaction to how they did, what helped them learn, and possible next steps.  I still struggling at how formal this should be or if it should be.  Should I make it a less rigid prompt and make it more of a free reflection.

Artifact

The artifact section differs a little for those students who took the test vs those who completed the alternative assessment.  Those who took the test were asked to reflect on their performance and look at their goal for the next unit.  If students would like to earn test correction points, this is where they would embed their correction document.  For students who completed the alternative assessment, they are asked to reflect on the process of the creation including successes, struggles, and if they were to do it again what they would change.  In addition, they are to embed their alternative assessment.

Looking at the student pages, they are all over the spectrum.  They key will be in providing in depth feedback on what is working and what students could expand/improve on.  


I've included some screenshots below.  This portfolio is ultimately intended for a general audience. I'd love some constructive feedback on how you think the format could be improved to communicate with an audience and to allow for learner relevance.

Also if you're doing portfolios, what are your students putting in them? I desperately want to know regardless of grade level.












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