Multimedia Representations of Students Work Over Time

Samples

Central School's work with digital portfolios in 1997. Given Central's history with the Descriptive Review Process and Child Study Center (see Background), the administration enlisted David Niguidula, an educational consultant specializing with digital portfolios, to help digitize student's work. David came to the school three times during the year and teachers were given the option to work with him and develop portfolios.

A kindergarten teacher thought it would be helpful to record her students reading. She was not a particularly adept teacher with technology and she ran into many difficulties. In fact, another teacher and I often helped her digitize the recordings, use a digital camera, input the text and manage the files. She also solicited the help of a parent to key in the text. In any case, she found the work important enough to persevere. See a sample of a kindergarten portfolio.

My first grade colleagues and I felt it was important to follow through with the recordings of the kindergarten students. We developed a standard template to use across each class, and we decided to include other examples of student work (writing, scanned photographs, etc.). See a sample of a first grade portfolio. 

I also constructed a web page to develop a way to share the student's work with families more directly and to provide an avenue of communication between my classroom and the home. See a sample of a web page portfolio.

This past year we decided to make a more concerted effort to connect the portfolio to the New York Sate Literary Profile. We were again given release time three times during the year to meet with David Niguidula and support each other with the technical requirements of the work and discuss whether or not the portfolios shed any light on the Literacy Profile. We also decided to record the students reading in the Fall and the Spring. Given my new position (see background), I assisted some of the teachers with the digitizing. See a sample of a second grade portfolio.

The music teacher also followed suit, recording her students as they played a scale or piece of music. See a sample of a music portfolio.

The fifth grade teachers have also provided time for the students themselves to digitize and archive work. See a fifth grade student's portfolio.  

 

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