Creating a Digital Portfolio

Digital portfolios can be comprehensive in scope and can serve many functions. Some are used to showcase accomplishments while others are used for assessment purposes to demonstrate content mastery. As this is our first undertaking in this area, it is important that we set realistic guidelines in the development of our Digital Portfolio Program. With that in mind, we have selected seventh grade as our target group for this goal. It is our hope that these students will evolve along with this program eventually continuing their digital portfolio not only in eighth grade but in high school as well.

Some Suggested Activities:

•Establish a committee to develop guidelines for the Edgar Middle School Digital Portfolio Program.
•Instill a sense of student ownership in the creation of their portfolios. The portfolios should show evidence of a process of self-reflection and personal growth/achievement.
•Provide instruction to students on various types of portfolios including 1) a working portfolio, 2) a display portfolio, and 3) an assessment portfolio.

The following represents a list of suggested works for inclusion:

o Written documents that are representative of student works from Math, Language Arts, Social Studies, World Language, and Science.
o Scanned works of art generated in or out of school.
o Music compositions and iMovie presentations that can be saved as m4a files.
o Musical performances may be digitally recorded and saved as m4a files.
o Award certificates may be scanned.
o Health and Physical Education achievements may be documented.


Assessment:
By June, 2011, 95% of all seventh grade students will possess a digital portfolio which includes a collection of their personal work and accomplishments. The portfolio will be an electronic representation of examples of academic achievement and student growth during their seventh grade year.