Learning Results Portfolio details

A. Purpose:

The primary purpose for a Professional Development Credit portfolio is to measure the effectiveness of the training activity in advancing teacher and student learning. Content and construction may vary, but the portfolio is shaped by the purpose of the activity. The purpose gives the portfolio its focus and is instrumental in shaping the form, content, and process of the portfolio. Once the purpose has been established, participants seek to find and create practices that meet this need. There must be a connection between theory and practice, and between the purpose and the contents of the portfolio.

B. Requirements:

Overall requirements for Learning Results Portfolio:

1. Pre/Post Self-Assessment

2. Rubric – Self Assessment

3. Reflective Journal Entries

4. Standards-based Unit Plan (3 lessons minimum)

5. Minimum of three student work samples with explanatory captions

6. Evaluation of mobile apps

7. Annotated mobile app resource list

Detailed Requirements for Learning Results Portfolio:

*** remember to save and backup all of your files as you progress through this semester. You will need to collect all materials and compile them into the form of a final learning results portfolio.

C. How to Create an LRP:

*ask Grace*do we need to include information about creating table of contents or enough just to have instructions about how to create google sites?

D. What is a Caption?

A caption is a statement attached to each document in the portfolio that

• • Describes what the document is;

  • Why it is evidence; and

  • What it is evidence of.

Captions transform documents into evidence. They help evaluate the outcomes and measure how understandings and beliefs changed over time. They also provide an opportunity to describe the context of a teaching event and explain why the activity was appropriate under specific conditions.

For the sponsor/instructor, the caption infuses the document with meaning. The participant states in the caption why this document is evidence of learning. The sponsor/instructor does not have to make inferences about the selected document in the portfolio.

Captions need not be long or elaborate but must be clear and explicit.

E. How to Write a Good Reflection:

Reflection is thinking and wondering, either individually or with colleagues, of moments that touch us, of decisions made, and of the realization that something needs to change. The following questions may guide and help teachers refine their process of reflection.

1. What happened?

Begin by simply writing down what happened without jumping to analysis or judgment. This involves creating a brief narrative of the portfolio documents and of the training activity. Only then can the second step be addressed.

2. Why did it happen?

Attempting to understand why an event happened the way it did is the beginning of reflection. Search the context within which the event occurred for explanations. Consider underlying structures within the school that may be part of the event and examine deeply held values. More questions than answers may surface. Answer the questions in a way that make sense to you. Reflection often stops here; however, more in-depth searching is needed. The search for meaning is step three.

3. What might it mean?

Reflection is a way to find meaning. It is only through reflection that we recognize we had choices and that we could have done something differently. Recognizing that there is no one answer is an important step. Explore possible meanings rather than determine the meaning. But understanding by itself does not create changes in classroom practice. The last step involves holding our practices to the light of those new understandings.

4. What are the implications of my practice?

Consider how your practice might change given any new understandings that have emerged from the earlier steps. What new insights occurred? This is an entry into rethinking, changing practice and what we do with our students.

6. Growth and Change:

The growth and changes may be reflected in the learning portfolio by the following types of evidence:

1. Changes in the knowledge base: Pre and post testing, reports through surveys and interviews.

2. Changes in skill level and use: Self-assessment checklist, interviews, observations, clinical supervision or coaching discussion notes of teachers using the skills or practices

3. Changes in attitudes: Immediate measurements of satisfaction is not enough. Interview and survey, meeting minutes, observation and changing character of informal discussions among participants, raising staff interest in a topic, building sense of community and ownership, increasing sense of efficacy and confidence should also be considered.

4. Changes in students: Information on student progress related to the new practices and techniques being learned. Formal surveys, observations, and interviews.