Portfolio Handbook
7th Grade Portfolio
"How do I demonstrate my growth as a student to share with an audience of professionals?"
Summary & Deadlines
Students are working on how to identify growth in their coursework, and use evidence to back up their claims in writing by "zooming in" on artifacts of their learning. Students are also building their websites for the first time using Wix.com.
By 3rd quarter, students will choose which 3 classes to represent in their websites through a lottery process involving all 7th grade teachers. They will work on revising their Reflections through multiple drafts in each of their content classes, and will present their final portfolio website to a group of business partners in the last weeks of 4th quarter.
Grade-Level Overview Page
The 7th grade page will include a Quality Growth Statement (description below) that summarizes the 7th grade year in terms of growth through one of our 5 DRSS Qualities.
In addition, the page will highlight the 3 classes students will feature on separate Entry pages. Each class & growth topic will be indicated by a thumbnail picture & short descriptive teaser which leads the reader to a separate Entry page.
Reflections
Students will feature their 3 final Reflections on the 3 respective Entry pages for 7th grade (linked to from the grade-level overview page). Each Entry will be graded by the content area teacher for that class, and will factor equally into the final Portfolio grade.
Qualities Pages
The main Projects Page of the website will be built which explains PBL (project-based learning) and introduces our 5 DRSS Qualities. From here, the 5 quality pages will each be linked and described on its own page with a personalized definition written by the student.
Experience Page
Here, the student will describe their after-school activities and interests. This page is merely an intro the student's "outside of school" persona, which will become more extensive in future years. Eventually, this page will discuss internship experiences and jobs.
What's a Quality
Growth Statement?
At the end of the year, you will be required to write a brief narrative describing your area(s) of greatest growth in 1 of the 5 Qualities over the course of the year. You will be referencing/linking to endeavors from all your classes in order to illustrate your claim(s) about that "Great Growth." You can include links to those endeavors embedded in the narrative (hyperlinks) as well as include thumbnails or other methods of “featuring” that work. This Quality Growth Statement needs to appear on page of your website that introduces your current grade level.
In the example from this student (below), the Quality Growth Statement is based on a growth in Collaboration. Underlined captions in the following text would be hyperlinks to other pages on this student’s website that are supportive examples of the claim of growth in the area of Collaboration.
This year, I became a better collaborator - not only during academic work, but in social settings as well. Collaboration is a huge part of the way we do projects here at DRSS. No matter the class, there are always opportunities to learn from others and share ideas. One example would be during our labs in science class because if we all wanted to hold the flame, none of the other tasks would get done. Even though I wanted to do it, I let one of my partners have a turn and I took a lesser responsibility because it doesn’t have to be “my way” every time. As a younger student, I might have insisted, but I’ve learned to be more flexible and not worry so much because it will even out in the end. In my life outside of the classroom, I've also realized that the same idea applies when my softball team practices together. I can’t always be the star player; sometimes I have to give someone else a turn. Just like in a classroom project, this year I've been better able to see the greater good and purpose in my actions, and I've let go of my ego when solving conflicts and asking for help.
