Getting Students Ready For Portfolio Conferences
Rather than your usual "parent/teacher night," our school conducts portfolio conferences that empower students to lead the discussion with their parents about their learning in school.
This new dynamic ensures that both parent and student are on the same page about the successes and challenges of the student's current learning.
Additionally, when we start to work with students using e-portfolios and student-led assessment conferences, the utility of the process goes far beyond what happens in the twice-annual experience of parent-teacher conferences. Students learn to advocate for their growth and needs, and they can partner with the teacher for progress reports and quarter grades if teachers are required to give them.
To prepare students for conferences, teachers need to be prepared to help them get ready. The process shared below helps engage students. When paired with a robust use of the formative assessment process (learning targets, co-constructed success criteria, student goal setting, practice, feedback, self and peer assessment, reflection, etc), students have the opportunity to thrive.
It's a four-step process that allows students to review their body of work and make decisions about what best shows what they know and can do.
Collect: As students learn, they must keep a collection of the completed work. This can be done physically in a folder or online in Google Drive (or any other online service of your choosing).
Select: Students then go through their collection and select the work they feel shows their best learning and/or the most progress. Teachers should help students with a checklist of ideas of what makes work selection worthy for the portfolio. This can be normed by vertical teams in schools or grade-level teams depending on the age and school environment. Ultimately, the students should be the ones to determine the pieces. It also helps to have an established rubric or success criteria that help to guide the selection.
| Success Criteria | Student Selections |
|---|---|
| Evidence demonstrating mastery/proficiency of written skills taught in class | |
| Evidence demonstrating mastery/proficiency of reading skills | |
| Evidence demonstrating mastery/proficiency of speaking and listening skills | |
| Evidence demonstrating the development of language skills | |
| A piece I am proud of | |
| A piece that shows growth |
Reflect: This must be determined by the teacher. When should students reflect, and in what manner do we want them to reflect to best show their understanding of their learning? Personally, my students reflected on all of their significant assignments as a part of the process. The prior reflection makes this part easier when it comes time to present because all of the work is already completed. Having a carefully scaffolded and practiced reflection process that is ongoing will develop metacognitive routines that will support student learning in many ways.
Depending on the age and maturity of the students, the comfort level with the standards, and the content of the classes, the depth of the reflection will likely vary. This can and should be taught, offering time in class with feedback to work on putting their ideas together.
Goal setting should also be an outgrowth of reflection. Based on their level of mastery against the standards and feedback provided throughout the formative process, students can develop goals that propel learning moving forward, helping teachers focus on future feedback.
Connect: To start showing mastery of skills across content, portfolio time is an excellent opportunity to explore content connections and talk about learning in a "flatter" space. Students shouldn't just speak of grades in classes and skill application across disciplines. This depth of connection also allows for further practice in different settings.
Once students have put their portfolios together, it's a good idea to get kids practicing how to present their learning. Getting students into pairs in advisory groups or an agreed-upon period of the day allows them the time to work through a script (if one is provided for scaffolding purposes) or write a script or outline of their own that will increase the coherence of the presentation. This is the moment where students can articulate what they know and can do and where they need to continue to work for greater depth of learning.
Philosophically, the most salient switch is that the conference is no longer a conversation between parents and teachers, excluding the most important person. It ensures that students are present and sharing is transparent. Teachers are taught not to get involved in the conference but rather to facilitate from the side with technology or collections that are physical.
At our school, we make appointments to know who is coming and when. Each appointment is set up for 15 minutes, and parents are discouraged from seeing all of the other teachers while they are here. If they are interested in that kind of meeting, there are sign-up sheets for appointments at different times. Students are still encouraged to be a part of those conversations too.
Learning shouldn't leave the learner out. Moving away from traditional parent-teacher conferences shifts the dynamic of who's responsible for the learning and focuses on what students know and can do rather than grades and scores, which often mean nothing once separated from the content.
How do you empower students to share their learning with caregivers and other stakeholders transparently?
Starr Sackstein has been in education for more than 20 years and is currently the COO of Mastery Portfolio, an Edtech Startup committed to helping schools move to standard-based communication. She is the author of the book Hacking Assessment: 10 Ways to Go Gradeless in a Traditional Grades School and Assessing with Respect: Everyday Practices That Meet Students' Social and Emotional Needs. You can follow her on Twitter @mssackstein.