Portfolio of learning goals impressed me
Nils Peterson
school.
What impressed me was the student portfolios, and the attention in the
portfolio to communicating goals, accomplishments, growth and
reflection.
ANSER portfolios are three ring binders (thick ones) with plastic
sleeves
that contain student documents. Some of the items are student work,
reports,
artworks, etc, coming from the expeditions.
More interesting to me was a sheet "Student Goal Setting" where the
child
wrote out a learning goal "move up a spelling group by the end of the
year
and learn multiplication facts" Then the form helps the child break
the goal
into steps, "do at home spelling activities." She then identified the
responsibility and/or resources needed, "do a spelling activity every
night." and Timeline/progress, "I want to be doing a spelling activity
as
part of my rotine (sic) by Jan." and a measure of how the step has
been
accomplished, "when it is part of my rotine (sic). When I get 90%-100%
on
spelling tests."
This form is signed by student, parent and teacher and discussed in
the
student-led parent teacher conference.
On the back is another form completed at the end of the school year.
State
your academic goal. Did you meet your goal? Write a refection.
I notice the kinds of strategies that the child identified for
learning her
spelling - practice and flashcards - and wonder if there might have
been
others, for example more writing with a word processor with spell
check
automatically on. That is, could the student have found more authentic
tasks
with authentic feedback, but that is a different level of
conversation. What
is first important to me is the student set goals, thought of
strategies to
reach them, had assessments about those strategies and finally
reflected on
the whole cycle.