Student Writing Portfolios

So each year I try to focus on one aspect of my teaching and improve. Someone once made the comment that you can’t be a good teacher if you teach everything (self contained classroom). She didn’t mean anything by that, just that it’s a ton of work. I took that comment as a personal challenge. I want to be an expert at reading and writing, at math, at science, at everything! From then on I have chosen one area in my teaching that I wanted to focus on for the year. That doesn’t mean I ignore other areas of professional development or anything…I just give myself a focus.

This year I wanted to work on my Writer’s Workshop. I love teaching writing and I feel confident in my abilities. But I wanted to really look at my practice and make sure that what I was doing aligned with my beliefs about education.

One of the best outcomes of this focus were my student portfolios at the end of the year. I send home books that students have written throughout the year. I also send home a bunch of writing that has accumulated over the year at the end. But this year I really used those student portfolios to help guide my teaching and form a more complete picture of each individual student as an author.

Here are two samples of student portfolios towards the end of the year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know that I can get even better next year…but I am excited at what I was able to send home at the end of the year with each student.