SENIOR PORTFOLIOS

(updated March 2007)

Purpose

Satisfactory completion of a Senior Portfolio is required for recommendation for teacher certification. Your portfolio provides evidence of the competencies you have developed with respect to the Standards for All Teachers outlined by the Illinois State Board of Education and the major elements of the Teacher Education Program Conceptual Framework:  scholarship and artistry, inquiry, research, and reflection; relationships; context; and transformation.  The Senior Portfolio is also meant to help you refine your skills in producing professional portfolios, which are likely to be required for earning standard certificates, national board certification, and other awards for teaching excellence.  The portfolio, or selected elements, also may be shared with potential employers; it is not, however, a job portfolio.

The portfolio process allows you the opportunity to creatively map and record your competencies as a liberally educated teacher who is both a scholar and artist. Constructing your portfolio is meant to engage you in a holistic, integrated, and reflective process of self evaluation. It is our hope that you also will be creative, and produce a document that reflects who you are and where you are in your journey of becoming a teacher.

Your portfolio is a product portfolio, that is, it demonstrates mastery and contains only your best work.  This is different from a process portfolio which is a progressive record of your work and development.  Thus you must be selective as you decide what evidence to include, and your essays should focus on what you know and are able to do.

Format

Your Senior Portfolio must be digital, and saved to a CD or DVD. Consult with your Educational Studies 401 professor about specific requirements. Electronic portfolios must have the primary sections of the portfolio easily identifiable and accessible (refer to the assessment rubric for additional evaluation criteria).

CONTENT

Home page.  Every portfolio should have a page that identifies who you are, and an index of the documents included in your electronic portfolio.  Disclaimer information should also be on this page.

Visual or auditory representation and essay.  To highlight the IWU TEP emphasis on the artistic and creative nature of teaching, you will design a visual or auditory representation that symbolizes your reflections on the process of becoming a teacher. A visual representation may be a graphic, a drawing, a photograph, or a logo; an auditory representation may be an original or other music composition (with source noted) performed by you. Your representation should speak to the themes most relevant to your personal construction of becoming a teacher, which you should explain in a narrative essay.

Conceptual Framework reflection.  The above representation and essay may also speak to how the theme of teacher as artist and scholar applies to you.  If not, in this essay describe what it means to be a teacher who is both an artist and scholar, providing illustrative examples.  This includes:  (1) describing your engagement in inquiry, research, and reflection on your discipline, on your students, and teaching; (2) describing how you established authentic relationships with students and their families, and with colleagues; and (3) your understandings of the varied contexts of students lives and how this understanding influences your teaching. Finally, (4) write about your personal and professional transformation over your four years at IWU. What have you learned from your field experiences? How has your coursework increased your understandings of major educational issues? How has your understanding of your professional role and your philosophy of education evolved? Go BEYOND the ISBE standards for all teachers in this essay, and speak to what is most important to you. What questions do you still have? How will you pursue the answers?

Narrative Reflections.  The body of your portfolio consists of your narrative reflections and supporting documents. You may choose to organize the body according to the ISBE Standards for All Teachers and the main elements of the TEP Conceptual Framework, or by the documents you select. In either case, you must describe how the artifacts you select demonstrate your proficiencies as a teacher. (Refer to the assessment rubric to be distributed senior year.)

Evidence/Artifacts.  Regardless of any other documents you select to include in your portfolio, every portfolio must include the following items:

• Long range lesson/unit plan
• Daily lesson plan
• Example of student assessment
• Evidence of student learning from the plan as implemented
• Copy of final student teaching evaluation
• Abstract of educational research project (elementary and secondary candidates only)

Additional documents or artifacts may include the following:

• Revised teaching philosophy
• Digital videos of your teaching
• Digital videos of student presentations
• Significant papers or projects from your major and/or education courses
• Journal entries
• Written communications to parents
• Individual lesson plans
• Assessment instruments developed and used
• Sample student work, including the work of students who did not initially meet your expectations.
• Materials from professional conferences or in-service days
• Recorded observations of students
• Recital clips (music candidates)

Do not include as artifacts materials made by your professors (e.g., course syllabus) or cooperating teacher (e.g., lesson plan or student assessment).

All artifacts should be clearly labeled or captioned.

Obtain permission when using video and audio tapes and photographs of your students and colleagues.  Otherwise you must blur the faces of individuals.  Also obtain student and parent permission to include sample student work.  Remove names from all student work or use pseudonyms.

While some artifacts may provide evidence as to mastery of more than one standard, you should strive to include different artifacts for most standards, and always select the best artifact for each standard. See table as an example of how some artifacts may be used as evidence for different standards.

Timelines

It is highly recommended that you collect evidence that documents your learning and accomplishments from the first year on, in general, major, and professional education course and field experiences.  Most professional education courses require candidates to complete course specific portfolios. These course portfolios will go a long way toward helping you prepare your Senior Portfolio. In addition, saving your course syllabi and related handouts, graded course assignments, and your textbooks from your IWU coursework will be important as you make your case for meeting all ISBE Standards for All Teachers.

Music Education candidates submit a sophomore year portfolio at the time of the Upper Division Exam, to be assessed by the MTAC committee and Music Education faculty. Consult with the Director of Music Education regarding the required contents of the sophomore portfolio.  Music Education candidates present their Senior Portfolios during the last three weeks of student teaching during the student teaching seminar. All presentations are held in the Buck Computer Lab.

Elementary, Secondary, and Foreign Language candidates begin their Senior Portfolio during student teaching, and complete them during Education 401, the senior seminar. In the case of 9th semester graduates, a draft portfolio is submitted to the 401 professor, and a revised portfolio submitted at the end of student teaching.

Portfolio Assessment

In general, when assessing your portfolio, faculty* consider

• The quality of the written presentation
• The depth and thoughtfulness of your reflective essays.
• The specificity and relevance of the evidence provided in your appendices.
• The organization and design of the portfolio.
• The extent to which the portfolio, as a whole, demonstrates your teaching competence with respect to the TEP philosophy and ISBE standards.

Any category of the portfolio earning a “1” rating (see rubric) must be revised and resubmitted within 30 days of graduation before a candidate will be recommended for certification.  While portfolios may be revised until acceptable for certification, revisions will not count for change of course or portfolio grade.

Note: Portfolio requirements are subject to change. Changes will be announced during the student teaching seminar and/or Education 401.

*Music education candidates’ portfolios are assessed by the Music Teacher Advisory Committee and Music Education faculty.