"The most positive feature of portfolios for teachers is that they provide the system for collecting and monitoring student's work. Portfolios usually include a variety of evidence that demonstrate and explain students' classroom performance. The collection should be guided by principles of what is important to assess in children's progress. In collection process students have to take a responsibility of collecting evidence about their own work and assessing their own progress.

Teachers vary tremendously in the ways that they collect work samples and there is no standard format. In fact, teachers often use several different systems such as writing folders, journals, math portfolios, and reading logs to organize work samples in different areas of the curriculum. Portfolios is a generic term for collections rather than a particular physical system for organizing those collections of work samples. Although the systems may wary, teachers and students should consider three kinds of evidence across the curriculum.

 

• First, children should include samples of their performance on daily tasks.
• Second, portfolios should include evidence about the processes of learning used by students so that others can "see their thinking" in the work.
• Third, teachers and students should reflect on their perceptions of their own abilities and achievements."

Lambert N.,M.& McCombs B. (1998).
How Students Learn.
Reforming Schools Through Learner-Centered Education.

 

"In early childhood education, portfolios should contain a statement of purpose and a wide variety of work samples, including successive drafts of work on particular projects. Children should be involved in choosing items to preserve so that they can analyze their work themselves. "

Cathy Grace (1992).
The portfolio and Its Use:
Developmentally Appropriate Assessment of Young Children.