An portfolio review for an annual evaluation (homeschooling)?

Question

What do certified teachers look for in a student's portfolio? I mean I know they check to see if the child has grown academically but what do they actually check for or do?

If you have ever chosen to do a portfolio review for your child's annual evaluation (given you know what I am talking about) could you please tell me how it works, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thats "a porfolio review" not "an".

Answer 1

We are required by our state to keep a portfolio, and we have it reviewed for our annual evaluation.

For the evaluation, I only put in it what the state requries:

-A regularly updated journal (I update once every week or two)
-A reading list (I keep library reciepts and staple them to a piece of paper)
-Writing samples (I choose a dozen or so)

Our evaluator is really great, though, she's a homeschooling mother herself. She just reads through the journal, looks at their work, she'll ask about how we're doing and I'll tell her, and she'll ask the kids how they've been doing and they'll tell her. She'll recommend something, like a math book if the kid was having problems with algebra or a website if the kid was interested in meteorology. Then she gives us a letter stating very basically that the child's progression is satisfactory.

Of course the entire portfolio includes their artwork, pictures (a scrapbook section), lists of classes they've taken and all the resources we've used, ticket stubs and maps and such from field trips, etc. But those are for our personal enjoyment.

I guess the real question is, does your state require you to keep a portfolio, and if so, do they have any basic requirements on what should go into it?

If not, I would say some progress updates (either grades or narratives), reading list, and samples of work (worksheets, writing), should be enough.

Answer 2

Hi,
A portfolio review is not as scary as it seems.What they are looking for is to see how the child has grown academically and how it was achieved.
The most painless way to give them what they want is to KEEP EVERYTHING---if the child scribbles a doodle, date and put it in the Art file, have pictures of the Field Trips you went on and so forth. Here's what I do (I've been at this for 4 yrs now)...... I start off with a Legal Size plastic file box and Legal size file folders. I label each folder with a class (Math, Science,History, etc) and whatever is done in each subject just goes in the appropriate folder (if a project is done that can't actually go in the folder, take a good quality pic and place that along with the instructions for that project in the folder). A lesson plan book and an Attendance Record, along with a Spiral Notebook. The lesson plan book shows what lessons we have done on what days (always date everything) and if we did any field trips. The attendance record can be a pocket calendar---just make a mark for the days child 'attended' school and remember that field trips count as a school day---in Fl, we must have 180 days.
You are probably wondering what the spiral notebook is for.---I have learned that it is best to write everything I use down (types of curriculum, books we read, computer programs we use)--I place a catagory on every TWO pages and then go back and write all the names of the stuff used to teach (Math--Ray's Intellectual Arithmetic; Spelling--McGuffey Speller, SpellingTime.com; etc). This stops them from saying that you haven't listed the TYPE of curriculum used since you can hand them the notebook--I also keep a running list of all the books my daughter is reading in the spiral.

Don't go putting just anything down, make sure that it is stuff that your child(ren) have actually done or are doing, because the evaluation person will ask the CHILD questions to guage how well the child knows his/her stuff.

A small note of advice: If the people or person doing the evaluation tells you you are missing something or advises you to go a different route, listen politely and then make sure to double check everything before meeting them again. Many times these people open their mouths and say things that are not true : ex: I was told that my daughter would have to sit for the FCAT in the 3rd Grade--I did my research and found that as long as I Homeschool thru High School the only state mandated test my child would have to take were the SATs for College---I called these people back and informed them of what was on their own website, they said they would check it and 24 hrs later I recieved a call apologizing that 'I was right,they were wrong and thank you for bring it to our attention'.
My point being is that many times these people even though they work for the system, have no clue as to what is actually IN the system or how it works and in most cases are giving information out that is out-dated.

I always after we have had to deal with an Evaluation or Portfolio Review take my child out to lunch--it helps to put her and myself more at ease and break up the stress of what we just went thru.