#17 Designing Your Professional Portfolio by Candra Thornton

Objectives:

• The students will identify the importance of an interview portfolio.
• The students will identify the 5 performance standard categories of a professional portfolio.
• The students will identify items to include within each performance standard category.

Activity:

• The students will watch the video, "Developing a Professional Portfolio: A Guide for Preservice and Inservice Teachers" (Office of Laboratory Experiences, College of Education, University of Maryland at College Park, 1996).
• The students will discuss the video and brainstorm ways they could use this information to create their own portfolio.
• Each student will identify 5 things that they have already done in student teaching that they could include in a professional portfolio.

Closure:

• Students will share with the group the items from their list.

Developing Your Professional Portfolio

Costantino, P.M. & DeLorenzo, M.N. (1998). "Developing a Professional Teaching Portfolio: A Guide for Educators". Office of Laboratory Experiences, College of Education: University of Maryland, College Park.

What is a Professional Portfolio?

A professional portfolio is a collection of work representing your professional experiences, competencies, and growth over a period of time. An interview portfolio is a selected showcase of exemplary documents of a teacher candidate's best work and accomplishments for the purpose of gaining employment.

Why is a portfolio important?

A portfolio is important because it facilitates the development of reflective thinking by requiring you to assess your own performance in all aspects of teaching and student learning. It presents a holistic view of your achievement as opposed to only transcripts and test results, and it provides a visual record of your accomplishments that says more than just a resume.

Performance Standards

One of the first stages of thinking through the development of your professional portfolio is to identify the knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to the practice of effective teaching (a.k.a. "performance standards"). The five categories identified here are accepted by the education profession as valid areas for documenting teaching performance and are found as standard items on most teacher evaluation and recommendation forms. These correlate directly with state and national performance standards and may be used as a framework for portfolio development.

• Knowledge of Content and Educational Theory: (1) demonstrate the understanding of content-specific information about the concepts being taught; (2) use theory related to teaching and learning to inform teaching decisions and enhance classroom practices; (3) demonstrate an understanding of the learner's physical, cognitive, emotional, and sociocultural development.

• Planning, Delivery, and Assessment of Instruction: (1) make evident the development of short- and long-range planning based on diagnosis of student learning needs and instructional goals; (2) demonstrate a repertoire of appropriate strategies for teaching all students in inclusive classroom settings; (3) incorporate a multicultural perspective which integrates culturally diverse resources, including those from the learner's family and community; (4) demonstrate use of technology as appropriate in the planning, delivery, and assessment of instruction; (5) demonstrate a repertoire of generic and content-specific instructional strategies appropriate to student needs and curricular goals; and (6) show evidence of the use of valid age-appropriate assessment methods, formal and informal, to address developmental needs, conceptual abilities, curricular outcomes, and school goals.

• Classroom Management and Organization: demonstrates competency in management and organization of the classroom using approaches supported by research, best practice, and expert opinion while working with individuals, small groups, and total classes.
• Professional Qualities: (1) show evidence of the skills necessary to collaborate with professional colleagues and those in the broad educational community including parents, business, social service agencies, and organizations which influence the life of the school; (2) present evidence of a commitment to ongoing professional growth; and (3) demonstrate respect for the norms, standards, and professional ethics within the educational organization and community which influence teaching and learning.

• Human Relationship Skills: (1) demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively and develop positive working relationships with students, parents, school, and community; and (2) demonstrate the ability to create a classroom climate which maintains the dignity of all individuals and respects diversity.

Product Approach to Portfolio Development

The product approach is the collection of existing materials which represents your educational experience. It documents and validates teaching performance and professional accomplishments. The major components of this approach are:

• collection of artifacts related to educational experiences
• organization of these documents in a logical manner
• inclusion of explanations and reflective entries

Start your portfolio by gathering a variety of existing artifacts that represent your professional accomplishments and teaching competencies. After collecting these documents, decide how you will categorize and organize the new materials (refer to performance standards). Since most of the documents you will select are evidence of past performance, you will need to include explanations and a personal reflection about your professional growth and student learning outcomes. Adding reflections and explanations will provide more meaning to the materials presented.

Collection Phase of Portfolio Development

There are many items that could be included in your portfolio. Having too many documents may create an overwhelming task for the reviewer. The key is to be highly selective! Sort out the best from the rest and choose only those items which are critical and essential to the purpose of the portfolio. In general, current artifacts will have more value than those collected many years ago with the exception of major honors or awards you have earned.

The following examples are provided using the five teacher performance standards.

KNOWLEDGE OF SUBJECT MATTER AND EDUCATIONAL THEORY:

• highlights of a unit of instruction or research paper, reflection on your learning, and implications for future classroom instruction
• a description of travel with pictures and how this experience contributed to your knowledge of content and application to classroom instruction
• transcripts or descriptions of courses, workshops, study groups, and staff development experiences that enhanced knowledge of subject matter and/or theory
• original materials developed (books, papers, articles) that demonstrate knowledge of subject matter
• a general reflection about your level of mastery of subject matter
• test results that show your competency in content areas
• notes, letters, written feedback from other professionals regarding your subject matter competency
• an explanation of how your knowledge of teaching and learning theory has informed your instructional decisions

PLANNING, DELIVERY, AND ASSESSMENT OF INSTRUCTION:

• a reflection on your beliefs about teaching and learning
• an overview of a long-range unit of instruction
• an explanation of how you use knowledge of the learner to plan instruction
• sample lesson plans
• an explanation of how you modify instruction to meet the needs of all students
• pictures with captions of students engaged in a learning activity
• video tape demonstrating your teaching with a written explanation of what is on the video and your analysis of the instruction
• a web illustrating your repertoire of strategies used for instruction, a rationale for selection of these strategies, and results of instruction
• a list of strategies used to create a multicultural perspective
• samples of student work
• samples of assessment tools used to diagnose learning needs
• samples of rubrics used to assess student performance
• a written "think aloud" about your decisions regarding the use of assessment results to diagnose and plan further instruction
• a chart illustrating before and after assessment of student learning
• documentation of how you use technology for planning, delivery, and assessment
• pictures of bulletin boards, plays, special events, special projects, field trips, and guest speakers with captions explaining what occurred
• a professional development plan for increasing effectiveness in planning, delivery, and assessment of instruction
• results of solicited feedback from students regarding your effectiveness as a teacher
• notes or written feedback from an administrator, supervisor, or cooperating teacher regarding the effectiveness of your instruction
• a written self-analysis reflecting on your growth in planning, delivery, and assessment of instruction

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION:

• a statement of your philosophy of classroom management and discipline
• a description of your policy and procedures for managing your classroom
• diagram of classroom arrangement & explanation of how this arrangement facilitates instruction and management
• a description of a situation in which you were successful in changing inappropriate student behavior to on-task behavior. Explain what happened and what was learned.
• include pictures of bulletin boards and centers that relate to management and organization of the classroom
• a description of strategies used for instructional management and/or behavior management
• a sample of how you keep accurate records (grades, attendance, etc.)
• notes, letters, written feedback regarding the effectiveness of your classroom management
• written reflection regarding a self-analysis of your classroom management

HUMAN RELATIONSHIP SKILLS:

• a letter of introduction written by you to the parents of your students
• an explanation of special strengths you have in creating positive working relationships with students, other teachers, parents, administrators, and supervisors
• description of experiences working with diversity in the classroom
• what you do to involve the broader educational community in the instructional program for students
• notes and letters from students, parents, school, or university professionals regarding your interpersonal skills
• a reflective entry describing your interpersonal style of developing positive & productive working relationships

PROFESSIONAL QUALITIES:

• a current resume
• a list of memberships in professional organizations
• a description of leadership positions held
• evidence of degrees, honors, awards, and recognitions received
• evidence of volunteer work, special projects, programs, and participation on committees related to education
• research, articles, papers written or co-authored
• letters from administrators commenting on your professional qualities: responsibility, reliability, punctuality, attitude, etc.
• evaluations
• written statement regarding your goals for future professional growth

Worksheet: Making Decisions About Potential Portfolio Documents

This worksheet is intended to help you think about what you already have and what you need to begin the collection of documents for your portfolio. Keep in mind that the documentation you include should be your own materials, designed and developed by you, and not copies of commercially developed products.

	Document and validation materials I currently have that support the purpose of my portfolio:	Materials I need to create or obtain to enhance this area (not including introductions, explinations, reflections):	Which performance standard does this support?
Educational Psychology
Planning for Instruction
Instructional Units You Have Developed and Taught
Your Repertoire of Instructional Strategies
Technological Skills
Evidence of a Multicultural Perspective
Subject Matter Competency
Evidence of How You Include All Students in Your Instruction
Classroom Management & Discipline
Diagnosis & Assessment of Student Learning
Professional Development Activities
Community Involvement
Travel, Hobbies, Talents, Skills and Other Experiences that Influence Your Teaching
Professionalism
Letters, Notes, Recommendations, & Evaluations

Sentence Starters for Reflective Entries

• It is evident that my teaching has increased student learning because...
• What I have learned from this experience is...
• After observing my students, I realized...
• What I think I will do differently is...
• When I considered what happened I...
• As a result of this activity I now...
• It was a real eye opener for me to...
• The most significant learning for me was...
• After carefully considering..., I think...
• This experience has helped me to understand...
• I have noticed that...
• Since I have..., I feel...
• I have gained significant growth in the areas of...due to...
• Some of the areas that I need to continue to gain experience are...because...
• I have gained considerable insight about...
• In assessing my own performance I...
• I strongly believe...
• It has become apparent to me...
• When I think about...I realize...
• A new learning for me...
• In order for me to continue to grow...
• I now understand the importance of...
• My goals for future professional growth are...