Portfolios

Pre-Student Teaching Portfolio

At the end of the year prior to student teaching (typically as you are completing your methods course), you must submit an electronic portfolio providing evidence of your development toward meeting Lawrence's 13 Teacher Education Program Standards. This portfolio will be reviewed by a member of the Education faculty before you begin student teaching.

Your portfolio will include the following:

Teaching Standards - a self-reflection on your progress toward each of the standards

Content Knowledge - major courses and grades, Praxis II scores, independent studies, etc.

Practicum Experiences - a list of practicum sites and what you did and learned in each practicum

Teaching Sample - a short video of you teaching a lesson to a class (from a practicum)

Lesson Plans - two lesson plans you created that exhibit different approaches to teaching

Assessments - two different types of assessments you created

Other Materials - other work related to the teaching standards that you wish to cite as evidence of your progress

You will be taught how to use the LiveText portfolio software during the spring term of the year prior to student teaching, typically while you are also taking your methods course. You will use this same software, with a more expanded template, to prepare the final teaching portfolio to be submitted at the end of student teaching.

Note: You must have submitted a Pre-Student Teaching Portfolio before you will be permitted to begin student teaching.

Final Teaching Portfolio

While student teaching, you will prepare an electronic portfolio demonstrating that you meet each of Lawrence’s 13 Teacher Education Program Standards.  You can also use this portfolio (or a modified version of it) to support a job search by e-mailing a passcode that allows a school principal to view your portfolio online.

The portfolio typically includes the following:

Each section contains sample materials (documents, images, videoclips) with comments that introduce each item and state what it shows about your teaching.

Your portfolio must include the following:

Cooperating Teacher's Final Evaluation - This is the assessment completed by your cooperating teacher at the end of your student teaching. (A similar assessment is completed in the middle of student teaching to provide feedback on your progress.)

Reflective Essay – This essay satisfies a course requirement for student teaching. Required topics for the essay are described in the student teaching syllabus.

Teaching Standards – This section lists multiple (typically 2 or 3) indicators for each program standard, identifies where in the portfolio they can be found, and explains how they demonstrate mastery. See Program Standards for a list of standards and possible indicators.

The LiveText portfolio software should be familiar to you from preparation of the Pre-Student Teaching Portfolio. During student teaching, you will gather materials for your final portfolio, enter these into the electronic system, add annotations and reflective commentary, fill out the teaching standards section, and submit the completed portfolio by the end of the semester.

Throughout student teaching you should gather materials you might want to include in the portfolio. Save lesson plans, handouts, assignments, and assessments. Scan and save copies of student work with names removed. Have your cooperating teacher photograph you and videorecord your teaching so you can extract clips for your portfolio that show your teaching at its best (if you can't find a digital video camera at your school, borrow one from Mudd Library). Don't wait till late in the semester to start gathering materials (especially videos and student work samples), or you might not get what you need.

Note: Your Final Teaching Portfolio must be officially approved before you can be certified for licensure. If it is not, you will be asked to revise and resubmit it.

Preparing an Effective Portfolio

An effective portfolio is rich and viewer-friendly.  It includes simple navigation, vivid images and examples, brief videoclips that showcase highlights (and load quickly), and descriptive commentary that provides context and explains what each item shows about your teaching.  An effective portfolio also provides clear evidence that you meet each of the 13 Lawrence Teacher Education Program Standards and demonstrates that you would be an effective teacher.

Here are some general tips to help you build a good portfolio.  Sample portfolios will be shown in the student teaching seminar.

Tips

1. Make sure every page has real content: images and text. Pictures, lesson plans, work samples, etc., should appear on the page, with supporting materials (handouts, resumes, etc.) attached as PDFs.
2. Triangulate: include three lesson plans with different approaches, different kinds of assignments, different types of assessments, diverse work samples, etc., to show the range of your teaching
3. Keep videoclips under 3 minutes, focusing on highlights of you in action. Edit videos to eliminate dead time and compress files so they load quickly. On the portfolio page, provide a still image from the video and a descriptive blurb with the length of the video in parentheses (2:10).
4. Showcase your students' work (but remove any identifying information!). State the assignment and describe how the sample demonstrates learning. Include before/after samples for dramatic effect.
5. Introduce every item and highlight what you want the viewer to notice; make it clear what this shows about your teaching. Be the viewer's guide and tell stories about your teaching and students' learning. (But be brief--no one likes long paragraphs or lots of words.)
6. Make sure everything you cite in your Teaching Standards section is visible in your portfolio (lesson plans, etc.) or available in your Education Department file (transcripts, test scores, etc.).
7. In your Teaching Standards section, name each piece of evidence (including where it can be found) and state clearly and succinctly how that evidence shows you meet the standard. Be sure to give independent indicators, such as a lesson plan and an observer's evaluation (note that an evaluation and letter of recommendation from the same person would not be independent).
8. Review your portfolio from the reader’s point of view.  Does each page have impact? Are the images clear? Are the paragraphs brief (with correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation)? Do the videos load and run quickly across the internet? Do you provide at least two independent indicators for each standard? Seek feedback from others and revise/edit before submitting your portfolio for review.

Technical Notes

All portfolio components or attached files should be in the following formats:

• PDF for documents -- Convert Microsoft Word (DOC), Excel (XLS), or Powerpoint (PPT) files to PDFs. Scan paper documents as PDFs.
• JPEG for images -- Take digital photos of student work or scan work samples as JPEGs. Obscure names or remove them later with Photoshop. Crop and compress images to an appropriate size.
• MOV (Quicktime) for videos -- Edit and compress videos to make sure they load and play quickly.

Before you submit your portfolio, try loading it from another computer (such as a home computer) to make sure all the images and videos run properly over the internet.

More information about electronic portfolios and how to create them can be found on the Instructional Technology website. See Arno Damerow, Instructional Technologist (Main Hall 108), for technical help with LiveText, scanning and image editing, and video editing.