This document discusses portfolios and conferences as assessment tools. It provides definitions and benefits of portfolios and conferences, as well as general guidelines for their use. Portfolios are purposeful collections of student work that demonstrate effort, progress, and achievement. They provide holistic and ongoing records of learning. Conferences allow teachers and students to discuss work, goals, and progress. When used interactively, portfolios and conferences promote student involvement and responsibility for learning.

1. Portfolios
and
Conferences
Diego Acuña
Lorena Peña

2. AGENDA
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Portfolios (Definition and benefits)
General guidelines for using portfolios
Guidelines for using portfolios interactively
Conferences (Definition and benefits)
General guidelines for conducting conferences
Record-keeping.
Activity
Conclusions

3. Portfolios
A
portfolio is a purposeful collection of students´
work that demonstrates to their peers and others their
efforts, progress, and achievements in given areas.
 The primary value of portfolios is in the assessment
of students achievement.
 Classrooms in which portfolio assessment plays a
major roles are more student-centered, collaborative
and holistic.

4. Benefits of
Portfolios

5. Portfolios provide
A continuous, cumulative record of language development
A holistic view of students learning
Insights about progress of individual students
Opportunities for collaborative assessment and goalsetting with students
Tangible evidence of student learning to be shared with
parents, other educators and other students
Opportunities to use metalanguage to talk about language.

6. Portfolios Promote
Students involvement in assessment
Responsibility for self-assessment
Interaction with teachers, parents, and students about
learning.
Students ownership of and responsibility for their own
learning.
Excitement about learning.
Students 'ability to think critically about schoolwork
Collaborative, sharing classrooms.

7. General guidelines for using portfolios
Teacher
plays a
leading role
It is a matter
of negotiation
between
teacher and
students.
Getting
started
The
implementation
of portfolios
takes time.
Teacher must
guarantee that
portfolios are
used actively
& interactively

8. What are portfolios?
File
Folder
Box
Any
expandable
container

9. Work kept in portfolios
Samples
of writing
List of
books
that have
been read
Book
reports
Tape
recordings
of
speaking
samples
Favorite
short
stories

10. Amount of work kept in portfolios
The number of
pieces should be
limited
It is necessary
to review and
update the
portfolio
periodically.


portfolio of
current work
Portfolio of
completed
work
Decisions should be
shared by teacher and
students, so that students
maintain ownership of
and responsibility for
their work

11. Systematic review
and analysis of
portfolios should
be carried out on
regular basis
Teacher
Students
Parents
Other teachers
Educational
professionals
have access to
portfolios.
Keep the
portfolios in a
common readily
accessible area to
which students
have easy access.

12. Guidelines for Using Portfolios Interactively
The sense of responsibility and excitement for learning can
result from the use of portfolios and critically depend on :
1
• Portfolios being used interactively
2
• Students’ assuming ownership of
their portfolios
3
• Students’ controlling the review
process.

13. Suggestions for making portfolios interactive
vehicles for promoting student involvement in
learning
Include students as much as possible in
decision making about their portfolios.
Students choose the pieces to be included in
their portfolio.
Negotiation about how work will be assessed
and which criteria will be used for assessment.
Plan portfolio conferences periodically.

14. With school-aged students, include parents in
reviewing portfolios
Encourage students to review and share their
portfolios with other students
Organize reviews of individual student
portfolios by small groups or the whole class
Ensure that the discussions of portfolios are
positive and collaborative and under the
control of SS.
Adopt always a positive collaborative and
supportive attitude .

15. Portfolios & Student Self-Reflection
By using portfolios Students (SS) can
Be agents of
reflection &
decision
making
Have
control of
their own
learning.
Reflect on
their own
learning.
Assess their
own
strengths &
weaknesses
Identify
their own
goals for
learning

16. To ask SS write
or give a
comment about
usefulness of
portfolios for
learning.
Encourage SS
to reflect on
their work in
front of their
peers.
Set goals for
language
development
Brief
describing
note
Specific ways of
Accomplishing
Reflections
How can
they
overcome
strengthen
weaknesses?
Allow SS
to control
the review
process
Compare
pieces of
work
Select their
most
improved and
most difficult
work

17. Guidelines for using portfolios to plan
instruction
Teachers can use portfolios to plan instruction
that is responsive to students needs.
Plan regular
conferences
Review SS´work after
major units or periods
of instruction
Look for recurrent and persistent
SS’ difficulties and keep a record.
Listen carefully SS´ comments about
difficulties they have faced during the process.
Engage SS in joint a goal setting and instructional
planning, and ensure that these goals and plans are
incorporated into teachers’instruction.

18. CONFERENCES
Are
used to review the content of portfolios
Conferences can be used more widely as part
of evaluation, and generally take the form of a
conversation or discussion between teachers
and students about school work.
Conferences can include individual students,
several students, or even the whole class

19. CONFERENCES AND
INSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING
Identify successful and problematic learning strategies or
styles that students are using.
Identify aspects of instruction that students have and have
not successfully mastered.
Identify problematic aspects of language performance for
individual students.
Understand students’ motivations and interests.

20. Benefits of
Conferences

21. Teachers direct questions to their SS
to gain insights about:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Their application of skills and knowledge taught in
class.
Specific difficulties they have when doing schoolwork
and how they resolve them .
The processes or strategies they use in the performance
of certain language-based tasks.
Their understanding of or beliefs about certain aspects
of language, such as reading and writing.
Their interestand goals with respect to language.
Their understanding of and responses to intructional
activities.

22. Additional Benefits
To be self-reflective
To assume responsability for their own learning
To collaboratively set individual learning goals
To assume ownership of learning
To recognize and enjoy their accomplishments
To communicate orally in one-to-one conversations
with their teachers about schoolwork in ways that are
important to them.

23. GUIDELINES FOR CONDUCTING
CONFERENCES
Students must
feel that the
conference is
under their
control and for
their benefit
CONFERENCES
Having students
review the work
for you
Teacher must
permit students
to comment on
whatever is
important from
their point of
view.

24. WHEN TO CONFERENCE?
 Conduct
the conferences with each student on a
regular basis throughtout the year or course in
order to monitor progress.
 When the conference is used at the end of a
major unit, conferencing can help assess learning.
 Conferences that are conducted irregularly and
infrequently are not useful for instructional
planning, nor does this allow students to become
familiar so that it is maximally beneficial.

25. CONFERENCING AND GRADING

26. RECORD KEEPING
It
is also useful to record observations and
insights arising from the review.
Recording
comments about conferences is
especially useful and important because the
conferences do not provide a written record.

27. Teacher
Journals
Conference and
portfolio notes
Specific ways of
accomplishing
record keeping
Rating Scales
Checklist

28. Activity
http://lopeflo25.wix.com/lorena http://dilicing.wix.com/diego

29. CONCLUSIONS
 Portfolios
and conferences are innovative and
valuable methods of collecting information for
evaluation..
 They give SS opportunities to use language
with teachers in ways that rarely occur during
class time.
 When both portfolios and conferences are
used interactively, they give SS a sense of
involvement in, control over, and enthusiasm
for learning.

30. Bibliography
Geneese & Upshur (1996) Classroom-based
evaluation in second language acquisition. p.
98-117