Reflective portfolios

Because...

As the year progressed, the preschoolers' responses began to evolve. In answering the question, "Why do you want this in your portfolio?" the children began to start their statements with "because." Such responses represented a turning point for preschoolers in their ability to talk about their learning. For example, Elizabeth's portfolio included a clay penguin sculpture that she had made, a photograph of her during the sculpting process, and a penguin book she wrote. Her reason for including these items was, "Because I learned all about Emperor penguins. I know a lot about them." She was showing what she learned, valued, and remembered. Wilcox (1993) writes about this shift in thinking, which she encountered while working as a researcher on the Manchester Portfolio Project: "When learners begin describing their action or accomplishments in statements of causality, it represents a huge step in the evaluative process. After students begin talking about themselves as agents, their reflections quickly become more complex and more meaningful" (p. 23).

Hard Work . . .

As the students reflected on their learning, they began to value pieces that were not necessarily their best work, but that they had worked hard to create. Erika, when describing a crayon rubbing she made, related that it was in her portfolio "because it was tricky to do and I worked really hard on it." Elizabeth had cut photocopies of rainbows and colored them in. She said, "These are in my portfolio because I worked hard . . . I cut them out with scissors and colored them by myself. Cutting small shapes is hard to do. I did it myself. Do you see that I cut 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 of them? You gotta know that's hard work!"

I Did It Myself. . .

Elizabeth also valued her efforts to be independent, as illustrated by her comments about a story picture that included drawings and writing: "I want this in my portfolio because I drew all the pictures myself and the teachers didn't write the words, I did." Her classmates also relished the artifacts they felt were their own. Their sense of accomplishment was clearly evident by their inclusion of artifacts they had created independently.

Preschoolers Share Portfolios

As I observed these preschoolers, I also wanted to explore the value of children sharing their portfolios with each other. I wondered whether they would listen to each other, and change the way they viewed their portfolios. Would it open up possibilities students had not thought about? As a member of a research seminar in which all of the participants kept portfolios and regularly shared and updated them, I learned much from the other participants. I discovered new ways to arrange and categorize my artifacts, considered adding artifacts similar to those of the others, or was sparked to think of something I would not have thought of on my own. I hoped this would be the case for these preschool children as well.

Once again, time and practice seemed to be very important. The first few times I held sharing sessions, it was a struggle to set the ground rules. Each child was eager to share and found it hard to wait for a turn. The most effective way to keep the children's attention on the person sharing was to set aside about five minutes for each participant in the small group (consisting of 3 or 4 students) to look over the contents of his or her portfolio and select one piece to share. Then the portfolios were moved to the side, and each student took turns telling about the artifacts and why they were chosen for the portfolio.