Portfolio Assignment (Mock portfolio for a 6 year old ELL Student)BY: RUTH ANN DAPKUS

ED 485/585

WINTER 2015 PROFESSOR: SANDRA STOCKWELL

(NAEYC)I found this organization to be extremely helpful:

National Association for the Education of Young Children

http://www.naeyc.org/

Why use Portfolios?It is “part of an assessment plan” and “these documents involve the teacher, parent, and the child in the system”

(Mindes 2011, pg. 71)

*Increase language learning*Emphasizes both content and performance, or holistic learning.*Links between learning across the curriculum*Facilitates children’s learning about audience awareness as they write*Is individualized

I’ve included these guidelines as a

reminder as to why we have ‘portfolios’

Student: Alyx (Excerpts from in class work September 2014 -February 22, 2015 “present”)

Samples of Alyx’s art projects during unit on ‘Spring’ & after our book of the month ‘baby

animals’ –MET Task: use dried beans as a medium and use it to

represent an animal habitat.

Animal mosaic. Task:

choose an animal from the story and

create an illustration with mosaic

medium.

I would save as many artifacts that were a direct result of projects and tasks assigned. I would let the child know they are going to be saved for our portfolios beforehand. I would allow them to access a portfolio holding area in the back of the classroom to allow them to see their work if it was not already placed on bulletin boards around

the room.

Work product examples

Work product examples cont.

Self-portrait:

Following our introduction to Art and famous artists. The students learned about Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keefe and Leonardo Da Vinci. They all drew and completed a self-portrait. Each child picked a work product sample for their portfolio from this unit. Alyxselected this ‘self-portrait’ for her portfolio. 10/4/2014

This activity builds fine-motor skills. If done

consistently over time there are developmental theories that imply it may be used as

a diagnostic tool.

Not actual student. This is a ‘mock

portfolio’

Constructing buildings: (Snap shots of buildings built by Alyx during our unit on ‘parts of

the house’ December 8, 2014)

This building was selected by Alyx to go in her portfolio. (She was

very happy with it.)

Not actual student. This

is a mock portfolio.

Constructing puzzles…PUZZLE COMPLETED BY ALYX: 1/15/2015 PUZZLE COMPLETED 11/5/2014

This was done in class following a

discussion on forest animals.

Observation: (If possible, I would have an aid video an end of unit lesson wrap up. Depending on the school and my director’s policies.)

This would be useful to see the learning process and document the activity. It would help me as a teacher and I would also place it in the ‘portfolio’ as well. It would serve as an archive for that week or month’s lesson. It would help parents because often ‘visual math’ is confusing and from my experience many parents are not educated on the common core math standards. With a video they would understand what we are actually doing in class so that they may assist their children at home. I’ve included this in the mock-portfolio because I think its important.

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/grade-1-math

Math:For this activity (far left) students practice building different strategies for subtraction. Here we are practicing hands-on math. They remove counters in this manor.

Notes: Alyx thoroughly understood the activity and her progress was observed and noted.

Snap shot from Alyx’s Math

journal ‘counting by fives’ –Activity

completed 1/20/2015

*practicing addition

within 20 and showing her

answers.

These are the types of activities and samples I would include in a portfolio…

Science:Snapshots

from: ‘Is it a liquid or is

it a gas’ activity.

Science Fair: 11/1/2014

Note: If this was a non-mock portfolio I would include work product

examples here. These are however the types of

activities I would like to do in my future class.

Language Arts: Writing Journal…Week 1 Journal: Topic “What I liked about my first day at school”

Week 2 Journal: Topic……

Week 3 Journal: Topic….

Week 4 Journal: Topic…..

Week 5 Journal: Topic…..

Etc. etc.

In this writing journal I would include a scan of a journal entry. I would pick one from each week and scan it and put it in the portfolio. Then, I would have the children select one entry that they want in their portfolio. It allows me to assess children's progress as well as show it to the parents at parent teacher conferences. It also allows the children to reflect on their writing over time. (Practice is essential for literacy development) Even in first grade they can attempt to get their ideas down on paper. Some may choose to draw pictures as well. This is ok! Task: To write continuously for five minutes on a designated ‘topic’.

“Reaching Every Student: Recognizing Giftedness in Bilingual Students” (Woolfolk 2014, pg. 219).

The Mindes book does a good job to explain special evaluations for Special Education programs. However, this also includes talented and gifted ELL’s. Funding for public schools in America is often under rather than over and many ELL’s with high aptitudes for Math, Science get overlooked and lost in the shuffle. I would want to include ways to reach them as well. For example: (Right ) Provides a look at identifying Bilingual Students with Gifts and Talents. It is a great resource!

According to one student: “school is hard for me because my English is so limited…there are times when I feel a lot of pressure because I want to say something, but I don’t know how to say it. There are many times when the teacher is asking questions, I know the answer, but I am afraid that people

might laugh at me.” (Woolfolk 2014, pg.219).

Language Development and emergent LiteracyI would include writing tasks and samples such as this one on the right. According to Anita Woolfolk ‘Inside-out skills’ are “the emergent literacy skills of knowledge of graphemes, phonological awareness, syntactic awareness, phoneme-grapheme correspondence, and emergent writing.” I could then judge the ‘Outside-in skills’ or the “emergent literacy skills of language, narrative, conventions of print, and emergent reading” (Woolfolk 2014, pg. 190).

The two are interdependent of each other. It would be helpful for me as a teacher to see where the child is at with both of these skill sets.

Note: These are two interdependent tasks. A grocery

list and a story. “This child knows quite a bit about reading and

writing-letters make words that communicate meaning, writing

goes from left to right and lists go down the page, and stories look

different than shopping lists” (Woolfolk 2014, pg. 190).

I would most definitely include this type of sample from class exercises in an

ELL’s portfolio. Emergent literacy is often overlooked in non ELL classrooms.

It’s important to examine this sample

for what it is:

‘Emergent Literacy’

Inside-out skills vs. Outside-in skills

Parent Contribution:· Likes and dislikes

· Favorite foods

· Special needs

· Health

· Favorite television programs

· Favorite books

· Favorite toys

· Fears

· Family activities

I would have the parents fill out this survey/list. Next I would scan it and upload it to the ‘portfolio’ because I want the parents to be involved in the snapshot of their child. I believe it contributes to the ‘holistic’ approach to learning.

I would also use it as a way to remember what the individual child likes in hopes it would help with in-class activities or projects.

Note: I would also create an interactive ‘virtual portfolio’ with box or online cloud storage that the parents could log into at any time. There would be portal for parent questions and concerns as well as current class activities and vocabulary. Emphasis would be placed on face-to-face meetings but I feel that a virtual box would be a

valuable tool. It is easy to do I feel all teachers should take advantage of technology in the classroom.

Detailed morning observation 2/17/20152/17/2015Individual observation starting at 8:30 am through the morning block and up until lunch at 11:00 am.‘Eliza’ came to her first grade class at 8:30am. Eliza is a native Spanish speaker. She entered the class with the other children, sat down and waited for instructions. She seemed fidgety compared to other children but she eventually unpacked with the rest of the class. Morning announcements were made and we introduced another student who is from French/Spanish descent. In the beginning the children (10 ELL’s total out of 19 students) sat in a circle. Calendar time was starting and children sang songs about days of the week and talked about how ‘today is Tuesday’ tomorrow is ‘Wednesday’ and questions were asked about “if today is the 17th what is tomorrow?” I felt Eliza was softer spoken than other louder children in the group but she participated with singing and all the circle activities.*Also during circle time they reviewed ‘colors’ and talked about what color each child was wearing. Eliza belted out “Adam has a blue shirt” much to my surprise and also stated that she had “pink shoes”.Next, there were ‘phonics’ exercises such as holding up a letter and a card in order to elicit sounds like J-jug-/j/. Review of th,sh,ch sounds Ch and gave the example of ‘chicken’. Some words were a bit more challenging for them and they all clapped and spelled. Eliza said the word, clapped and spelled. The teacher did this routine slowly with much positive reinforcement. A teacher’s aide asked for volunteers to pick a word and use it in a sentence. Eliza responded with “I have chicken” the teacher asked if she had one or two? She determined that Eliza has more than one chicken and reiterated that she had ‘chickens’. Not all of the children were successful but all seemed eager to use the words in sentences and try.9:15: They returned to their classroom setting to turn in their homework. Some children left the class for extra math help. The students that stayed in class discussed basic sounds and ‘trick words’ often times with the suffix s that gets added to the initial base word. Eliza used her finger to tap out the word. Their fingers touched their thumbs. It seemed rather involved and the students that returned from math seemed a bit confused. The teacher tried to help the returning students by showing them how to use their fingers in this way. Children volunteered to go up to the board and use ‘sound cards’. Eliza had a bit of trouble with the word “shell” and the difference with the short I and e. 9:35: Children received small cards with a dot at the end of them and moved to the side of the room. They took their seats and the teacher read a short paragraph. They were instructed to hold up their cards when there was a short pause or when a ‘period’ should be used. Cards went up at different times but they all participated. Eliza was correct in this activity and was one of the first to hold up her card in the correct pause.9:45: The class returned to their seats where they reviewed a writing activity.10:25: The students were called back to a circle to read several books with a ‘Spring’ theme. A conversation was started with what do you know about spring? What kind of weather do we have? What kind of animals do we see? Children were allowed to repeat someone else’s animals if they needed to. Eliza did not jump into participation at first. The word ‘elephant’ was translated. elephant and different ‘animals’ and she seemed more comfortable. The children write in notebooks about the animals discussed. Chickens and ducks and lambs are drawn in notebooks with many different colors often with the words in English beside them, sometimes just pictures. Eliza draws and repeats the names aloud in Spanish and English. Some children are easier to understand then others.10:45: The teacher calls the students attention and they read a story.

I can see that Eliza is very eager but also very shy. She would benefit from read-aloud activities. She seemed to excel at the card activity and understood long pauses in speech. She struggles with many issues that other children do with using ‘s’ at the end of the words and being consistent with this. A writing /picture journal would help her. Phonics games and integrating her parents in these activities at home would help. I don’t know what her parents’ level of English is however. I would like to see a ‘reading help’ group like the Math group for additional assistance here. I would like to see more structured small group activities as I think this would aid Eliza with her confidence and social interaction and participation.

Notes:

NOTE: This is a ‘sample’ taken from another assignment of an ‘observation’. Recently, I was able to observe an ELL classroom. I would however include the same type of ‘observations’ in my portfolio. I have included it in this ‘mock portfolio’ …. I do not have any detailed information about her family’s English level because I do not work at the school. I feel fortunate I was able to observe the classroom setting on that morning.

Summary: (‘Why’)

Throughout this portfolio I’ve touched on science, math, reading, language arts and literacy development as well as the visual arts. In theory the portfolio would start at the beginning of the school year and continue to the end of the year. I would upload as many scans of student work as needed and also keep a hard copy as well. Children would be notified of their portfolio’s existence, be allowed access to their ‘work product examples’ and be asked for their opinions on work to be included. These opinions will be noted and included. I will also save work product examples and document them. In hopes the parents will be involved I have designed a questionnaire about their child that will also be included. As always it is a ‘work in progress’ and I will be ever vigilant of creative ways to incorporate both child and parent in the portfolio. In a non-mock portfolio I would also have tests and standardized scores nearby for easy reference as well as developmental scores.

Works Cited:

Hoy, A. (2014). Language Development and Emergent Literacy. In Educational psychology: Active learning edition (Twelfth ed., pp. 190-191). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Mindes, G. (2011). Portfolios. In Assessing young children (4th ed., pp. 358-362). Boston: Pearson.

National Association for the Education of Young Children | NAEYC. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22, 2015, from http://www.naeyc.org/