Genesee and Upshur discuss the implementation of portfolios and conferences as a means of involving students "as active collaborators in documenting and monitoring their own progress and in identifying learning goals" (p.144). Portfolios provide: a continuous, cumulative record of language development; holistic view of learning; insight into individual progress; collaborative assessment and goal-setting; tangible, sharable evidence; the use of meta-language by all involved to talk about language development. Portfolios should be open-access for the student, and they should feel that they own the portfolio. They can contain a variety of information, including tape recordings, video, book lists, written work, etc. Portfolios might be beneficially separated into a working file and a "best work" file for showing to others. Criteria should be established by student and teacher for determining what belongs in which file, what should be retained, etc. They should be systematically reviewed and analyzed by multiple shareholders (students, teachers, parents, etc.).
Portfolios should be used interactively and owned by the students, and students should control the review process. Students should feel that they are agents of reflection and decision-making. Portfolios can be used to plan instruction.
Conferences enable the understanding of processes, strategies, and approaches of student performance. They are distinct in that their focus is singularly on process. Conferences can be conducted in conjunction with completed work from portfolios, but students should feel under control during the entire process. The focus should therefore be on student concerns and views of the various learning processes that they have been involved in creating their portfolio work. Conferences can also be used to reflect on instruction, and to focus on student self-image, or to elicit performance on a specific task or skill that the teacher wants to review. Conferences should occur regularly and frequently, but should not be used for grading purposes.
Genessee and Upshur include various discussion activities, conference and portfolio protocols, and do's and dont's checklists.
Gottlieb, M. (1995). Nurturing student learning through portfolios. TESOL Journal, 5(1), 12- 14.
Conventional teaching and testing have proven ineffective at offering descriptive information about learner processes and products. Portfolios can offer a method of synthesizing information on learning by showcasing language accomplishments. They also transfer learning into the hands of students. Gottlieb proposes the CRADLE approach to developing and implementing portfolios in classrooms and school districts. In order of increasing complexity, CRADLE entails:
(1) Collections of student work (always dated), usually confined at first to one area (e.g., oral development), and containing expressions of contextual learning processes as well as evidence of learning (audio tapes, video, etc.).
(2) Reflections by students on their perceptions, interpretations, and strategies for learning, possibly including a rubric of criteria that is generated by the class and that can be used to check, edit, and recap on the learning involved.
(3) Assessments enabled by systematic collection of data, "based on the alignment of curricular objectives/outcomes with assessment tasks and rubrics" (p. 13). Validity is ensured by the sampling of naturally occurring work that is aligned with the curriculum and which is reliably rated according to a set of performance indicators (that are generated by all shareholders involved in the assessment process).
(4) Documents of achievement that serve as legal representations and include not only student work, but also notes, records, and narratives from various sources (as a means of substantiating decisions).
(5) Linkage systems between the various participants in the learning process (student, teacher, and community) which ease student transitions from class to class and which "promote articulation among teachers" (p. 14).
(6) Evaluations or summary data for decision making purposes, accountability, and teacher development; "the utility and authenticity of an evaluation portfolio most likely will stimulate the revision or replacement of the traditional, grade-driven report card" (p. 14).
