This year our school decided to stop giving out traditional style report cards! Sounds crazy, right? Well, actually it is a very interesting change in how we assess our own learning, how teachers assess learning and how the feedback from these assessments is delivered and shared with our parents and school community. The biggest change has come in the form of a personal student portfolio. At the beginning of this year, every student in Lower School was given a nice, big, red binder. Throughout the year we have been using it to organize and compile work we’ve done that exhibits our growth, development, struggles, and achievements. It’s actually like having a living and constantly growing ‘report card’. Inside you’ll find math work, writing examples, awards, digital projects, art, photographs, etc. We include work from homeroom plus work from our specialist classes like Chinese Studies, P.E., Music and French. Teachers often comment on our work, write feedback to help us improve, and encourage us to stay organized by showing us the best ways to file our work and take care of our portfolios.
Throughout the school year students will sometimes bring their portfolios home to share their learning with their parents and siblings. At this time, families are encouraged to discuss the student’s performance, their achievements and their areas for improvement. This is done partly through a guided goal-setting activity which is later followed-up with a conference between students, parents and sometimes the homeroom teacher. These are better known as 3-way learning reviews & student-led learning reviews. Personal, social and academic goal setting is an excellent way for students of all ages to identify, examine, reflect on and eventually come to a deeper understanding of their own learning.
This week the Eagles are writing their own posts describing their thoughts and reflections on student portfolios and their learning goals. Ms. Cahusac helped get them started with some text, but they’ve filled in their own personal details about their experiences. The reason we’ve done this is to help us to stay on track with our learning goals by constantly reevaluating why we do what we do! Read a few of these blog posts by clicking on the Eagle #s on the right-hand side of this blog. I’m sure you’ll be surprised and amazed by their unique perspectives, interesting insights and their growing awareness of their own learning journeys.
Dear Parents of 5E,
It is critical for you to be an active element of this learning experience and this reflective process. Please comment on your child’s post (and others if you are so inclined), with your own reflections, compliments and suggestions. I will also be commenting on them and together, we can engage in dialogue which will perpetuate this learning experience. Please remember that this is a public forum and your input may be read and/or replied to by others within our learning community. For matters that are private, please feel free to email me directly. Thank you for your continued help and support through these developments!
Kind Regards,
Ms. Cahusac
Tags: goal setting, portfolio
