Throughout the creation of this ePortfolio, I have struggled to define how I can use this kind of tool in my 8th grade ELA classroom. I can easily imagine my ePortfolio as a successful way to showcase the work of my students and my work in integrating the arts into my instruction. However, it is more difficult for me to see how I can reasonably incorporate the use of ePortfolios as a means of assessing -- either formatively or summatively -- my student's learning. However, after much thought, I can see how the students could use the creation of an ePortfolio as a means of collecting and reflecting upon a large body of work. This could be a great way for students and teachers to summatively assess growth over the course of the entire year. Though I was unable to find a good example of this type of portfolio assessment, I envision the ePortfolio as a receptacle at first -- students would collect work samples and journal about their thinking and learning throughout the year. Then, towards the end of the year, students could peruse their ePortfolio and trace their growth. In a reflection piece, they could analyze their work and consider strengths and weaknesses. As their teacher, I could use this final reflection as a summative assessment of their metacognition and growth over the course of the year. This type of summative assessment would fit in nicely with my teaching philosophy. Students could chronicle and reflect upon their year through the lens of finding and following their bliss.
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As I searched for exemplar ePortfolios to add to my collection, I began to see how ePortfolios could be used by my students to chronicle and reflect upon their learning over the course of their 8th grade year. I've come to realize that I'm not interested in ePortfolios that are a version of a resume. I see my future students' ePortfolios more like journals or scrapbooks.
For this reason, I appreciated the High School Student's ePortfolio (https://prezi.com/wwtigpgosxii/my-art-eportfolio/) on Laverne's page. It seems like an excellent example of a melding of words and images to get a picture of a person's thinking and products. I also liked Cassie's ePortfolio (https://cassiestephens.blogspot.com/search/label/diy) on Sam's page. This one has a different, fresh look unlike the other, more standard ePortfolio sites. I can see some of my students who enjoy the scrapbooking aspect of Visual Journals really becoming inspired by this page. Finally, I liked the art teacher ePortfolio (http://mrsjacksonartbd.weebly.com/art-room-blog) on Stephanie's page. I really appreciated the clean look of the students' art on the black background. It was clean and the art popped. This makes sense to me, since I believe the ePortfolios should be about showcasing the work of students. In the last couple of years, I have explored and successfully used both iMovie and PuppetPals as a means of assessing student knowledge. After exploring the websites of both WeVideo and GoAnimate, I decided that they were not as effective for my purposes asiMovie and PuppetPals, both of which are easily accessible for me. Furthermore, my current unit and time limitations prevented me from easily incorporating these tools into my current lessons. For this reason, I've included the directions and rubrics for activities I've done in the past which demonstrate my use of video tools for student assessment.
iMovie offers students a fairly easy way to craft a polished video to demonstrate learning. In this instance, students used the Movie Trailer feature to create a video book review (of sorts) to convince others to read the book they had recently read in Literature Circles. The finished products looked beautiful, but we did have som logistic and technical issues. For instance, the only computers in our building with iMovie are in the computer lab, so all work was done there. Students worked in groups, and it proved difficult evenly share the workload when all students were working on one desktop. Furthermore, save and sharing the finished products was cumbersome, time-consuming, and frustrating for students and teachers. I think this could be improved with the recent additions of some new Canvas video viewing tools that are soon to be available on Canvas. At least I hope so. This video assessment took a week, and this was a large chunk of time to devote to a student assessment. I would be interested in finding a smaller, easier assignment that could still showcase student learning in an engaging and creative way. Puppetpals is an app on our school iPads (we have a cart with about a dozen or more...). This tool requires a less intense commitment and less time. Students still worked together to create a script and then record their puppet movie. The trickiest part is finding quiet spaces for students to practice and then record their audio with puppet movement. Overally, I appreciate the use of student-created videos to assess students, but I continue to work to find a way to manage the glitches and management of technology without taking too much time away from other curricular activities. My experience trying to implement a Nearpod lesson was frustrating. First, I had a difficult time figuring out what Nearpod had to offer my students and my instructional goals. I eventually came to understand that teachers could use this tool to have students annotate a piece of text or draw on a painting. When I tried to explore the site, I had a difficult time maneuvering the tools. Finally, I decided to import a powerpoint, with the hopes that I could add Nearpod layers onto it. However, this didn't work, and I spent quite a bit of time stressing about how to make this lesson work with Nearpod so that I could implement it within the time frame given to us for this assignment. In the end, I scrambled to add a couple of activity slides to the powerpoint on Nearpod. It certainly wasn't perfect, but it is all about the effort, right?
I decided to incorporate an artful routine into the lesson, and pondered the value of having students circle items or "draw" on the slide with the art. In the end, I decided that my GT students would be bored with such an elementary activity. Instead, we had a rich discussion as students made observations and inferences based on the painting. While it was nice that I essentially "captured" their screens with whatever slide I wanted them to look at, the lesson would have been just as effective with the painting projected onto my large screen at the front of the class. I had hoped to have students annotate on their version of the poem, but learned too late that I would have to create new slides with the poem on it (instead of just adding to the powerpoint slide I had already imported. So students annotated a paper version of the poem as I would normally have them do, and this was very effective. In fact, our discussions were so rich, I ran out of time to have students respond to the writing slides on Nearpod. For this reason, I do not have student work displayed on my Nearpod page. Bottom line: Nearpod -- in this instance -- offered no advantages to the current tools of instruction I have used effectively. I am not inclined to use it again. I'd rather explore more of the features available to me on Canvas and Google. Mrs. Haley, an eighth grade ELA teacher at Hammond Middle School, has recently published a model ePortfolio website that will inspire and guide her students as they build their own ePortfolio throughout the year to chronicle and celebrate their growth as artists, thinkers, readers, and writers.
This ePortfolio (http://haleysawesomeclass.weebly.com/) reflects Mrs. Haley’s experiences and reflections as she has experimented with integrating the arts in her ELA classroom. Her goal is that students will use the exemplar ePortfolio as a resource when they build their own ePortfolio throughout 8th grade. This marks a transition in Howard County regarding the student use of portfolios to track progress. Previously, students kept pocket folders in the classroom. As essays and other writing assignments were returned, students collected the work, completed a short reflection on a chart, and then filed the writing. As Howard County increased the number of laptops available to students and introduced GAFE (Google Apps for Education), students gathered their work in both electronic folders and paper folders. However, it was difficult for teachers and students to keep their work organized, and there was always confusion about where items were kept. Additionally, these portfolios were limited in the kind of work they could showcase. Mrs. Haley is very excited to introduce this ePortfolio model to students, so they can incorporate a wide variety of products -- written pieces, art, video, etc. Each student can manage and store their work in their ePortfolio, and other students will be able to view and celebrate the successes of their peers. Students can also reflect on their learning using the Blog feature of the ePortfolio. Finally, this ePortfolio widens the audience for students; they can share the link with friends, family, and even potential employers. Explore this model ePortfolio to see the future of arts integration in Howard County. |
Cecilia HaleyJoin me as I reflect on the creativity, mess, joy, frustration, and hard work that happens every day in my classroom. Every day is an experiment in engaging and teaching students using the arts and literature. Archives
March 2017
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