Fairmont, WV Academy

Digital Portfolios Continued

Guidelines for developing the teacher candidate portfolio and presentation

Your portfolio provides evidence of yourself as a thoughtful professional and documents your competence as an educational leader and your journey from student to teacher candidate. The size or length of the portfolio is not as important as the content. Although this portfolio must contain artifacts as evidence, it is not merely a collection of products. Rather, it is a reflection of your competence in teaching and professional responsibility. 

Contents of the EDUC 490 portfolio
Authors are to submit electronic products in their choice of multimedia software or as published/unpublished web pages which can be burned on CD, saved to disk, or transmitted via email attachment. The contents must be clearly marked using page numbers, headers/footers, or other means to facilitate reading. You must provide a table of contents, as well as opening and closing statements.  

  Required Artifacts:

• For Organizing Concepts: The Learner, The Teacher, & The Curriculum

·        You should include any artifacts that will provide evidence of competence in 75% of the objectives of each of these three Organizing Concepts.

·        You must video yourself teaching at least one lesson (20 minutes maximum) that will demonstrate your competency in meeting these three Organizing Concepts. (See due dates listed on the course schedule.)

·        You must provide a copy of your lesson plan for the taped lesson and print copies of any teaching materials used during that lesson (for example: paper copy of PowerPoint presentation, questions used to facilitate class discussions, worksheets, homework assignments, and/or small group activities).

·        You must provide samples of student work from the lesson taught. Remember to remove student’s last names from the samples.

·        You may include any other artifacts that will provide evidence of competence. For example (but not meant to be inclusive),

·        Copies of materials & methods used to support students who finish early (enrichment), who do not finish, or who have disabilities.

·        A copy of the observation review form completed by your mentor teacher or university supervisor.

·        A copy of your Personal Discipline Plan.

·        Your plans or methods for collaborating with families, other teachers, and the community.

·        For Organizing Concepts: The Society & The Educational Leader

• You should provide artifacts for each of these concepts that demonstrate your competency in meeting 75% of the objectives in each Organizing Concept.

·        Deciding what items of evidence to use and how best to present them throughout the various sections of your portfolio will be the challenge. Class discussions will help you with these important decisions.

Additional Requirements:

·        Essay to accompany artifacts used to demonstrate your competency for each Organizing Concept:

The purpose of this portfolio is to demonstrate your competence to exit (graduate and obtain certification) the Teacher Education Program of the Richard W. Riley College of Education at Winthrop University.  In order to demonstrate competence, you must write an essay of no more than 3 word-processed pages for each Organizing Concept.

In the body of your essay, you should

1.     Describe the artifacts presented to demonstrate your competence.

2.     Analyze the role each of these artifacts played in your development as a teacher; in other words explain the how, why, or in what way these artifacts were significant in your own learning.

3.     Reflect on how these artifacts have changed you or your perception of teaching. This section may include reflection on how these artifacts have shaped (changed) you and how you teach or interact with children. In addition, you should explain the implications (effects on or influences these artifacts have) for your future teaching.

• Opening & closing statements
• You should provide opening & closing statements for your portfolio.

·           The opening statement should introduce your portfolio with a declaration of purpose and concise description of the contents.

·       In the closing statement, you should discuss how the Conceptual Framework Organizing Concepts are related or interconnected and contributed to your development of effective teaching practices and as an educational leader.

Evaluation of the Portfolio
The purpose of the portfolio is to evaluate your growth from student (Exploratory Level) to educational leader (Professional Level). Your portfolio should document this growth and, therefore evaluation is based primarily on your statements and justifications rather than on the artifacts alone. A copy of the evaluation rubric will be given to you and can be found on the course website. Be sure to consult the rubric as you work