Using ePortfolios as a Showcase Tool
Showcase portfolios are designed to display a learner’s best quality of work. This might be to highlight student success, or to showcase a variety of accomplishments a student has achieved over a period of time. In showcasing a student’s work, this portfolio allows them to describe and tell their own story. Designing this type of portfolio requires creativity and individuality.
Display, Showcase, or Best Works Portfolios
Probably the most rewarding use of student portfolios is the display of the students’ best work, the work that makes them proud. Students, as well as their teachers, become most committed to the process when they experience the joy of exhibiting their best work and interpreting its meaning. Many educators who do not use portfolios for any other purpose engage their students in the creation of display portfolios. The pride and sense of accomplishment that students feel make the effort well worthwhile and contribute to a culture for learning in the classroom.
Purpose
The purpose of a display portfolio is to demonstrate the highest level of achievement attained by the student. Collecting items for this portfolio is a student’s way of saying “Here’s who I am. Here is what I can do.”
A display portfolio may be maintained from year to year, with new pieces added each year, documenting growth over time. And while a best works portfolio may document student efforts with respect to curriculum objectives, it may also include evidence of student activities beyond school (a story written at home, for example).
There are many possibilities for the contents of a display portfolio. The benefits of portfolios were first recognized in the area of language arts, specifically in writing. Therefore, writing portfolios are the most widely known and used. But students may elect to put many types of items in their portfolio of best works—a drawing they like, a poem they have written, a list of books they have read, or a difficult problem they have solved.
Audience
Since the student selects her or his own best works, the audience for a display portfolio is that student and the other important individuals, such as parents and older siblings, to whom the student chooses to show the portfolio. Other audiences include a current teacher or next year’s teacher, who may learn a lot about the student by studying the portfolio.
In addition, a student may submit portfolios of best works to colleges or potential employers to supplement other information; art students have always used this approach. The contents of these portfolios are determined by the interests of the audience and may include videos, written work, projects, resumés, and testimonials. The act of assembling a display portfolio for such a practical purpose can motivate high school students to produce work of high quality.
Process
Most pieces for a display portfolio are collected in a working portfolio of school projects. Sometimes, however, a student will include a piece of work from outside the classroom, such as a project from scouts or a poem written at home. Students select the items to be included in a display portfolio. Their choices define them as students and as learners. In making their selections, students illustrate what they believe to be important about their learning, what they value and want to show to others.
PhDini 