HITESOL Workshop

11/20/02

Developing a Teaching Portfolio

Introduction

In today's brownbag workshop session, we'll talk about developing our personal teaching portfolios. After briefly exploring reasons for developing a teaching portfolio, we'll discuss some of the necessary elements of a complete teaching portfolio. Next, we'll take a stab at perhaps the most personally challenging part of the portfolio, your Personal Philosophy of Teaching Statement. Finally, we'll look at several different ways to present and distribute our portfolios.

What exactly is a teaching portfolio?

"A purposeful collection of any aspects of a teacher's work that tells the story of the teacher's efforts, skills, abilities, achievements, and contributions to his/her students, colleagues, institution, academic discipline, or community" (Brown & Wolfe-Quintero, 1997).

Q: What does this mean to you personally? Is there anything that you would add or subtract from this definition?

Why are teaching portfolios useful?

· Creating and maintaining a portfolio may motivate teachers to improve and develop themselves professionally.

· Portfolios can assist administrators, as current and prospective employers, in evaluating the teacher's qualifications.

Q: Can you think of additional reasons for needing or wanting a teaching portfolio?

What should we include in a teaching portfolio?

1. cover letter (perhaps reflecting on the purposes and organization of the portfolio)

2. updated resume (briefly presenting all pertinent facts relevant to teaching background and qualifications), including lists of

conference presentations (including actual handouts from selected presentations)

published articles (along with copies of selected articles)

3. statement of your teaching philosophy, including discussions of

the theoretical underpinnings of your belief system and how your belief system affects decisions such as materials selection, teaching strategies, and classroom management

a description of what you actually do in the classroom, why doing things that way benefits your students, and how you know when teaching strategies are working

4. samples of your work, including

· a videotaped class (including supporting documents)

syllabi (with an explanation of how you created them)

tests (with a discussion of how you do assessment and grading)

students’ work (with comments on their relationship to your teaching)

your feedback (including a statement of how you give feedback)

original materials (with an explanation of the purpose of these materials)

5. selected comments from evaluations or observations of your teaching (along with an explanation of how you interpret these evaluations), including

evaluations from students

observations by colleagues

observations or evaluations from supervisors

6. other items

· letters of recommendation

· thank-you letters from students or colleagues

· awards or certificates

· pictures of classroom activities

· whatever else best represents your professional abilities and accomplishments

(from Wolfe-Quintero, K. & Brown, JD. 1998. Teacher Portfolios. TESOL Journal, winter. 24-27)

Q: Why are each of these items useful in a teaching portfolio?

Q: Would you choose NOT to include any of these items in your own teaching portfolio?

Q: Can you think of additional items to include in your own teaching portfolio?

Personal Philosophy of Teaching Statement

Why is a personal philosophy of teaching statement an important element of the teaching portfolio?

"It is important for ES/FL teachers, like any other teachers or indeed professionals, to be able to articulate their basic views and values concerning their practice, that is, their philosophy of teaching. As with all aspects of professional activity, unless one can state what one is trying to do, it is hard to critique or develop one's practice" (Crookes, unpublished SLS 690 class notes)

What philosophical views might be included in a teaching statement?

Views of the learner
The role of the student
Views of human nature
The functions of language
Approach to language teaching
The role of the teacher
Classroom management
Teacher self-reflection
Teacher's personal world view

Q: Can you think of personal philosophies that you would include in your own teaching statement?

Portfolio Types

Paper-based with videotape

Pluses: easiest to produce, most accessible

Minuses: costly to mail, bulky, timing, may be difficult to read through material

Floppy-based with videotape

Pluses: easy to produce, cheaper to mail, accessible

Minuses: can store only 1.44 kb on a disk

CD-based

Pluses: cheap to mail, somewhat easy to produce, inexpensive

Minuses: requires cd burner, storage limitations, requires cd reader, less

accessible

DVD-based

Pluses: cheap to mail, somewhat easy to produce, large storage capacity

Minuses: requires dvd burner, more expensive to produce, requires dvd reader, more inaccessible

Web-based

Pluses: cheapest (free?) to produce, free to send, most user-friendly, fully integrated, technologically advanced, anyone can see it

Minuses: requires more time to produce, requires web connection on both ends

Electronic Possibilities

Disc-based portfolio

Web-based portfolio

Conventional web technology

- Dreamweaver/ Front Page

- Audio and video players

Advanced web technology

- Flash

Integration

Making your own Electronic Portfolio

1. Develop the elements of your portfolio

2. Check out different web site designs to get ideas for your site

3. Secure free web space: University, Roadrunner, Apple, etc.

For site development, plan 10-30 hours from start to finish, depending on goals
Download trial versions of software, depending on your design, or
Use computer lab computers with software already installed
Take tutorials for downloaded software
Build your pages
Upload your material to your web site

Example of an Electronic Portfolio

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~sford

Q: What are some personal and practical considerations you may have in the near future that would influence the form of your teaching portfolio?

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