Portfolio Information

Portfolio Guidelines

The Department of Education has recently begun requiring all students to maintain a portfolio. As a student in the Undergraduate Teacher Education Program, you will be expected to maintain a portfolio of your work. This portfolio will have a variety of purposes: acceptance into the program, continuation in the program, acceptance into student aiding, acceptance into student teaching, graduation, and obtaining employment or acceptance into a graduate school Deaf Education program. As with all portfolios, yours will be a living testament to what you have learned and can do. It will include information about you, your philosophy of education, work and school history, samples of your work, documentation of awards and achievements, among other things. As you begin your program of study in the department your portfolio may contain a small number of artifacts and documents, but as you near completion you will see your portfolio grow to reflect all you have learned. There will be transition points at which you will be required to submit your portfolio to faculty from the department who will determine your readiness to move on in the program. Portfolios are used to determine students' skills and understanding of previous coursework, content and methods of teaching, and to determine if additional training and preparation is needed. Each student is required to demonstrate their level of achievement in relation to the Department of Education's Conceptual Framework (see page 38), the INTASC Standards (see page xx) and the University and Departmental graduation requirements.

Your portfolio will be a unique reflection of you and your abilities. You should feel free to be creative and to include your own reflections, style and perspective.

Students will be expected to attend portfolio seminars. At these once a month seminars students will learn how to develop their portfolios, have an opportunity to look at other students' work and learn to develop an electronic web-based portfolio. Dates for these seminars will be announced by the program director.

Every student in the Undergraduate Program is required to purchase access to LiveText software, which will be used for developing and maintaining your electronic portfolio. This can be purchased at the Gallaudet University Bookstore.

In the following pages you will find information about what to include in each portfolio, how the portfolios will be assessed.

Portfolio Evaluations: Timelines

The following table explains the five points at which your portfolio will be evaluated during your Undergraduate Program. The timeline dates are approximate and will depend upon when you apply for and are accepted into the program as well as the progress you are making in completing your courses. A successful evaluation of your portfolio is required to move on to the next checkpoint and for successful completion and graduation from this program.

Possible Portfolio Artifacts

Each item you include in your portfolio should have some explanation or rationale for why you included it, You should have a rationale for each section/item. The rationale should

Explain what you included (What is it?)
Explain why you included the artifact (Why is it here?)
Explain how it relates to the standards (both INTASC+2 and Conceptual framework)
Explain how it shows your ability or competence in the standard

Some ideas for artifacts you could include are:

• Anecdotal records
• Article summaries or critiques
• Assessments
• Awards and certificates
• Bulletin Board Ideas
• Case Studies
• Classroom Management Philosophy
• Community Resources Documents
• Computer programs
• Cooperative learning strategies
• Curriculum plans
• Essays Evaluations*
• Field trip plans
• Floor plan
• Goal statements
• Individualized plans
• Interviews with students, teachers, parents
• Journals*
• Lesson plans*
• Letters to parents
• Management and organization strategies
• Media competency
• Meetings and workshops log
• Observation reports
• Peer critiques
• Philosophy statement*
• Pictures Portfolio (students)
• Position papers
• Problem-solving logs
• Professional development plans
• Professional organizations and committees list
• Professional reading list
• Projects References
• Research papers
• Resume *
• Rules and procedures descriptions
• Schedules
• Seating arrangement diagrams
• Self assessment instruments
• Simulated experiences
• Student contracts
• Subscriptions
• Teacher made materials
• Theme studies Transcripts*
• Unit plans*
• Video scenario critiques
• Volunteer experience descriptions
• Work experience descriptions

*Required artifacts

Evaluation Of Portfolios

Your portfolio will be submitted for review at the designated time (see Portfolio Checklist). Each portfolio will be evaluated by a faculty team, faculty/school partner team or your advisor and yourself.(see Portfolio Checklist). Evaluators will use the following rubric.

Some Cautions

Plagiarism and academic ethics : Your portfolio should primarily be a showcase of YOUR work. Include artifacts created by others only occasionally and when you do, GIVE CREDIT TO THE AUTHORS. For example, if you create a lesson plan entirely from your own materials and ideas, you do not need list a citation. However, if you use a published book in your lesson plan, cite the reference and publication data on that book. If you use a lesson plan idea or materials from a website, cite that web address in your references. Any time you borrow an idea, materials or other information from a source you must give credit to that source. Otherwise you run the risk of being guilty of plagiarism, (when a person tries to pass someone else's work off as their own). You may also be found to be unethical. Being found guilty of plagiarism or of being unethical can result in probation or dismissal from the undergraduate Education program, probation, suspension or dismissal from the university, and/or being brought up on charges to the Judicial Advisory board. (for further information about academic ethics see the Undergraduate catalog)

Privacy Rights: Each school where you will be doing your internships has its own policy about what kind of information can and cannot be shared about students, etc. In most cases, permission from parents must be obtained in order to share or publish information about students. This information includes, names, grades, pictures, work, assessment information, and videos, as well as other types of information. Be sure you check with the schools where you are placed to learn their policy regarding information about students. Regardless of the school policy you should do your best to protect the names and other personally identifiable information of your students. All names and other identifying data should be removed from all items in your portfolio.