Portfolio Project ED 606 3.27.

2013 By Danielle Rubino

March 27, 2013 To Whom It May Concern, Greetings and welcome to my portfolio! The contents of this portfolio include several selections from the ED 606 Assessment Theory and Design course. I chose pieces that represent my learning and growth as an educator, including my learning process this semester. Being a first year teacher, I have had my fair share of struggles and successes, and these assignments and projects have shown me where my strengths and weaknesses lie. I have thoroughly enjoyed this journey of learning, through trial and error, discovering new developments, learning new strategies and techniques and valuing educator and peer input. The first example of my growth from this course was in Assignment 5.1, Glyphs. This activity represented my confidence in my choices as an educator, as well as supporting certain learning techniques. I will continue to use this example and activity in my classroom, to further my knowledge and interest in my students. The second example of my growth from this course was in Assignment Try This 7.1, Seven Practices of Effective Learning. This assignment introduced me to these seven practices, as well as their definitions and their importance in assessments. I learned several things from this assignment, and grew confidence as an educator because of it.

The third example of my growth from this course was in our last assignment, the Rubric Project. I chose this assignment for the reasons that I felt it illustrated my strengths in assessments after this course, and creating a rubric shows the concepts that I truly have learned. It was also important to showcase something that I plan on using within my classroom, and I believe it can be highly effective. It is exciting to me that I created this outline and rubric myself. Lastly, I have included my initial Philosophy and Goals assignment, which was completed the first week of this course, as well as my revised ideas and goals. I appreciate how this course was an effective collection of ideas, as well as revised ideas that I am able to look back upon while in the classroom. It is my hopes that I can accomplish my newly set goals by the end of next year. Thank you for taking the time to review my hard work this semester. I am excited to invite you to explore my growth and development as a student and an educator. It is always appreciated to have the support of my peers and educators. Hopefully my insights can help you in your classrooms, and can accompany your values of assessments and learning. It is my goal to use these experiences and knowledge to further my career as an educator. Sincerely, Danielle Rubino

Selection #1 Assignment 5.1 : Glyphs

This activity can support efforts for differentiation in a classroom by allowing the teacher to see the different areas that a student believes are their strengths and their weaknesses, as well as their preferred subjects. It is an effective way to differentiate the lessons per students, while keeping the students involved and practicing student-based teaching. Just because a student excels at a subject, does not always mean that it is their favorite. They may become bored because they arent pushed, therefore this glyph can show the teacher different sides of the students outlooks. This activity is great for assessments as well. For starters, it shows the teacher how efficient the student is at following directions. It is one thing to assess a childs work, but it is another thing to assess their work through their own eyes. Maybe a child is very talented at math, but doesnt have the confidence that they are. It is nice to know as a teacher how the child feels. The glyphs might also unfold situations such as these: A child is excellent at reading, yet says that reading is his/her least favorite subject. Maybe it is their least favorite because they arent pushed in that area. This is something a teacher may have never known! This also can tie in

with the differentiated classroom, because now the teacher can place this student in an even higher-level group to challenge them further.

Self Reflection for Selection #1: I chose this assignment for the reasons that it demonstrates a pure example of student-directed teaching. My current school prides themselves on project-based and student-based learning, and it is my job to find out what my students interests are and teach from there. I enjoyed the Glyphs activity, because it not only taught me about ways to assess the students, but it encouraged me to engage my students in decisions when lesson planning. I learned many things from this activity. For starters, I learned that it is okay to involve students. I also learned that glyphs are a fun and effective way to learn about your students strengths and weaknesses. There are times when I most likely look past my students work, and there are times when I miss important information about them. This activity reminded me of the importance of learning about your students qualities in school. I can and will confidently use glyphs in my classroom now, and I feel that they will be a great addition to my plans when learning about the newly fresh kindergarteners! However, I do still wonder the amount that a teacher weighs student interest into their lesson plans. Is there an amount that is too much? Too little? I suppose that every district and school is different, and I will continue to experiment with glyphs in my classroom.

Selection #2 Assignment Try This 7.1: Seven Practices of Effective Learning

The assessment that I chose for this assignment is a basic assessment that I used in the beginning of the kindergarten year. It is a sheet of two papers: one with the alphabet (uppercase and lowercase) and one with numbers (1 20). On the first page, I assess the students knowledge of letter recognition and letter sounds. On the second page, I assess the students knowledge of number recognition. I believe that my assessment tool is a decent example of implementing the seven practices described by McTighe and OConnor. I Use summative assessments to frame meaningful performance goals and Assess before teaching by figuring out what the students know prior to kindergarten, and where I need to start working towards. One thing that I could improve upon is to Provide feedback early and often. This would allow the students to feel accomplished when their goals are met. I didnt do this before because they are five years old and I dont think that they understand the concepts, but it may not hurt to try it out. There are a few practices that dont exactly align with kindergarten assessments such as Encourage self-assessment and goal setting, Show criteria and models in advance and Offer appropriate choices. These

tasks are simply too advanced for kindergarten and are not necessary in their assessments.

Self Reflection for Selection #2: I chose this assignment for the reasons that it represents what qualities within the Seven Practices of Effective Learning that my very first assessment tool possessed. After completing the assignment, I was confident that my assessment tool had at least half of the practices. Being a first year teacher is tough, and you want to do things right and follow protocol, but you also what to have some individuality within your teaching. So it was nice to see that I was maybe doing something right! With that being said, it was also helpful to look into the remaining practices that I did not have within my first assessment tool. This helps to me recognize what I need to add and improve upon for next time. My professors feedback was also very helpful, for I did not believe that self-assessments were possible in kindergarten, and my professor helped me see otherwise. Going forward, I will continue to use this assessment in my classroom, but I will add on other components that go along with the seven practices, especially the self-assessments. I am definitely still curious as to how that will go, and how effective the students assessments will be, or even how heavily I can weigh a 5 year olds opinion, but I am looking forward to exploring those areas.

Selection #3 Rubric Project

Name of Student: ____________________ Date: ____________ Title of Story: _________________________________________________ Author/Illustrator: ______________________________________________ ORAL STORY RETELLING RUBRIC (Kindergarten) Comprehension Elements Needs Improvement 1
Student can not identify any characters in the story

Fair 2
Student can identify only 1 character in the story

Good 3
Student can identify 2 or more characters in the story

Excellent 4
Student can identify all characters in the story

Characters

Setting

Student mentions no setting

Student mentions setting, but it is not described correctly

Student mentions and describes setting correctly

Student mentions and describes setting correctly, adding several details

Event Sequence

Student can only recall 1-2 events, but confuse details and order

Student can recall 2 or more events, but confuse details and order

Student can recall 2 or more events, with a beginning, middle and end in correct order

Student can recall all events, with a beginning, middle and end in correct order

Details

Student does not state any problem, solution or details of the story

Student states some details, including some of the problem and solution

Student states the problem, solution and a few details of the story

Student states the problem, solution and several details of the story

Presentation

Student uses only incomplete sentences and has no fluency

Student uses some incomplete and complete sentences

Student uses only complete sentences

Student uses only complete and fluent sentences

Making Connections

Student makes no connection at all

Student makes unrelated connection to the story

Student makes a connection to the story, with limited details

Student makes a complete and thorough connection to the story, with several details

Teacher Comments: ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________ Students Score: ________ (out of 24) Reflection: I chose to create a rubric about retelling a story because it is important for the kindergarteners to be able to comprehend a story. All children love story time, and happily engage in it, but it is important that the information is sticking and that they are learning at the same time. The first steps to becoming a great reader and writer is to understand the material. Therefore I believe that it is very important to create a rubric that judges where each child stands, so that I can help each student in the area that they are lacking. That is another reason why the rubric is great, because it breaks up the different components of each story for the oral retell. I believe that makes the rubric effective for the kindergarteners, so that they can learn where they need to improve as well. Several rubrics are given to the students prior to their assignment so that they know the key points and directions. Kindergarten is slightly different, because they would not be able to understand this rubric. Therefore, I would use it as a tool for myself and for parents, to gauge which students need extra help and where they need that help.

Self Reflection for Selection #3: I chose this assignment for the reasons that it showcases my efforts and abilities to create a rubric that I can confidently use in my classroom. I honestly do not believe that I would have been able to create this successfully if it had not been for this course. During several of the Try This activities, I did not feel at ease completely, especially in the beginning. During this project however, I felt

comfortable and confident when creating the rubric. This rubric project taught me that successful assessments need to include a breakdown of the desired components, and a rubric needs to explain what is expected of a student. As a kindergarten teacher, I originally did not see the importance of rubrics for they would just confuse the child, but now I see a rubric as a means of evaluating and assessing, not only for the child but for the parents as well. Rubrics can also help me determine what stage a child is in, and where they exceed expectations, as well as where they need to improve upon. This allows me to really focus on the weaknesses of the students so that they can improve. One question that still remains is if I should be physically giving these rubrics to the students, or even explaining it to them. My initial thoughts are that it is too complex for a kindergartener, but I suppose there is no harm in trying it out.

Philosophy and Goals Reflection

After reviewing my philosophies and goals from Week 1, I found that I still believed some of my ideas, where some of my other ideas had changed quite a bit. Below you will find my assignment with my original ideas (in bold) as well as my revised ideas (in red). I believe people learn best when I believe people learn best when they are in a comfortable environment and feel at ease, yet are challenged at the same time. I believe people learn best when they are in a comfortable environment and feel at ease, yet are challenged at the same time. I also believe each student needs the appropriate learning strategies that fit their learning style. My role as a teacher is to My role as a teacher is to educate the young students of America. Not only will I teach them the standards, but also the social and emotional components to daily life. (I believe this is accurate) The goal of all education should be The goal of all education should be simply to learn, and to improve oneself with knowledge and skills. The goal of all education should be simply to learn, and to improve oneself with knowledge and skill, both in and out of the classroom. By the end of the year, I hope my students will By the end of the year, I hope my students will show improvement in their basic skills, knowledge, emotions and social skills. I also hope that they grow as a person in a positive way. (I believe this is accurate) My broad curriculum goals for the remainder of this year are My broad curriculum goals for the remainder of this year are to see growth in my students in all subject areas, and to continue to see excitement towards learning these subjects in the children. My broad curriculum goals for the remainder of this year are to see growth and excitement in my students in all subject areas, and to

incorporate project-based and hands on learning within the constructed curriculum. My professional goals for the remainder of this year are My professional goals for the remainder of this year are conduct my class in the ways that my boss appreciates, that my students and their parents appreciate, and in ways that I appreciate personally. My professional goals for the remainder of this year are creating and utilizing effective assessments, promoting positive classroom management and behavior reinforcement, and utilizing project-based and studentcentered teaching. The purpose of assessment is to The purpose of assessment is to evaluate what state the students are in academically, and to figure out where to go next when educating them. The purpose of assessment is to evaluate what state the students are in academically, and to figure out where to go next when educating them. It is also important to recognize both the weaknesses and the strengths, and integrate them both into their future education. The purpose of evaluation is to The purpose of evaluation is to assess the students progress. The purpose of evaluation is to assess the students progress and to use that information to further their education effectively. I track student growth by I track student growth by assessing them individually, and wholly as a class. I do this through official assessments, through individual encounters and from watching them in the classroom. (I believe this is accurate)

Professional Goals and Timeline

1. Creating and utilizing successful assessments in the classroom, that promote effective learning and teaching. 2. Promoting positive classroom management and behavior reinforcement in the classroom. 3. Utilizing project-based and student-centered learning and teaching in the classroom.

It is my hopes that I can accomplish the first two goals by the beginning of the school year. I will allow myself extra time when working on my third goal of project-based learning, for it is something that is very new to me and will come with trial and error. The resources that I will use to work towards these goals are materials from this course, input and feedback from my peers, research on the Internet, and hopefully a class about project-based learning strategies that my supervisor has promised.

Portfolio Rubric: Self-Assessment

Portfolio Assessment for ED 606 (Dr. Deb Patterson) Name_Danielle Rubino_____________________Semester__Winter 2013__ Cover Letter Comments Invites reader into portfolio Letter is personalized Gives concise overview of portfolio contents Accurately proofread and edited Letter format is correctly followed Selection #1 Selected event or experience is clearly described or represented Selection is accompanied by reflection Reflection identifies reason for selection, articulates learning that took place, and defines next steps Selection #2 Selected event or experience is clearly described or represented Selection is accompanied by reflection Reflection identifies reason for selection, articulates learning that took place, and defines next steps Selection #3 Selected event or experience is clearly described or represented Selection is accompanied by reflection Reflection identifies reason for selection, articulates learning that took place, and defines next steps Philosophy Reflection Philosophy content is clearly written (free of error, shows depth of thought) Philosophy is accompanied by reflection and sets three goals for coming year Other Items (Optional) Selected event or experience is clearly described or represented Selection is accompanied by reflection which articulates learning S T

A-

S A

S A

S A

S A-

S N/A

Portfolio as a Whole Overall organization, includes all items on the checklist Selections are substantive, demonstrating depth of thought and clarity of writing Presentation (organization, careful editing and proofreading, clear language) Reflections are specific and clearly written (includes overall average of the above scores) Overall Comments:

S A

I thoroughly enjoyed this project, because it allowed me to take a look at my progress this semester. I learned many valuable techniques, assessment strategies and ideas, but I think the most important thing that this course gave me was confidence. I now know that I can be a great teacher, and even if there are things that I may not be great at, there is always room for learning and improving!