Keeping all of your work in a folder...BRILLIANT!!!

In my senior English class in high school we kept a portfolio with a lot of work from the year. Like most things in that class though we did a mediocre job of pursuing it. We didn't keep all of our work and it was very unorganized. I don't think the portfolio was assessed all that thoroughly either. In my class I would like to use portfolios and really stress their importance. I want students to be proud of what is in there. What I like about portfolios is that the student as well as the teacher can map their progression. As said in the chapter, portfolios show the process as well as a product, they create a collection of work, are useful to review instruction, and show student growth. It's really great how something so simple could be so helpful to both the student and the teacher. When assessing the student, portfolios are a great way to answer the question of how to grade students of different ability levels. It will be easy to see how hard a student has been working and be able to grade on their individual progress instead of comparing them to others. Another great thing about portfolios is it gives the teacher a great resource when parents want to know what is going on.