Progress Portfolio
A progress portfolio is generally used when teachers want to document a student's process as they move toward mastery. Teachers may select only certain pieces, or they may require students to accumulate all classwork, homework, quizzes, tests, warm-ups, etc. A progress portfolio is ideal to promote reflection on progress and goal-setting, self-correction, and accountability. In addition, it provides teacher access to a student's entire set of work at once. Unfortunately, a progress portfolio may require daily administrative time and might prove difficult for students who struggle with organization skills. Teacher grading, at its most basic, can be a simple checklist to ensure all parts are present. However, to take advantage of all the possible benefits, teachers will require that students reflect on pieces of work that they feel demonstrates an "a-ha" moment in their learning, two pieces to compare and contrast, and/or a piece to revisit and correct.
Log Book Portfolio
Daily Portfolio
Product Portfolio
Product portfolios contain only a student's best work and are used when a teacher (or other audience) wants to assess the final stages of mastery. It is an opportunity for students to demonstrate their best work and the fact that they have achieved a set of learning target. Product portfolios promote pride in one's work and the ability to self-assess based on learning targets or standards. Allowing students to select their best work also demonstrates their understanding of the learning target. Grading of product portfolios is often two-sided - one side being by the teacher and the other by the student. With a well-written rubric and good and poor examples, students will learn to assess whether their work meets standards. Teacher grading might be wholistic or based on a points-per-part system in which each piece of work is worth a number of points. Establishing a product portfolio will often take a significant portion of class time for only one day.
Standards Based Portfolio
Exhibition Portfolio