• Sample Self-Evaluation Questions
• Preparing for a Student-Teacher conference: some guidelines for teachers
• Questions to ask about writing

Some organizers:

• Building Your Portfolio! Sample Sec Cycle 1 ELA checklist
• Sample Student-Parent Portfolio Conferer Evaluation
• Final Parent Conference
• Peer editing
• Peer conference
• Peer Conference: Helping Each Other to Succeed

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Sample Self-Evaluation Questions

General:

General questions are used for students to self-evaluate freely on an artifact of their choice.

• Why did you select this piece for your portfolio?
• What are you most proud of?
• Why does this piece deserve to be in your portfolio?
• What would you do differently if you did this over? Why?
• What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses in this sample?
• What problems or obstacles did you experience when creating this piece?
• How would you overcome these problems or obstacles next time?

Portfolio as a whole:

• What was the most challenging assignment that you have included in your portfolio? Why was it challenging? How did you deal with the challenges? What was the outcome?
• What piece are you proudest of? Why? Please offer quotes from your piece and support with details about quality writing.
• What assignment did you learn the most from this year? What did you learn? Why do you value this learning?
• Looking at your work as a whole, what do you plan to focus on in English class next year? What are your goals?
• Is there anything that you accomplished this year that surprised you? What? Why does it surprise you?
• What assignment was the easiest for you? Why? What does that suggest about you? Is this your best work? Why or why not?
• At this point in your writing, what can you do as a writer that you could not do before? Please offer concrete details about quality writing, writing process, response etc.
• Look at your portfolio as a whole. What are your strengths as a writer? Please offer concrete details.
• Write a free verse piece that reflects what you have learned in English class this year. Try to include skills as a learner, not only content.

Writing Pieces:

Writing pieces include various genres of writing but exclude: journals and poetry which have their own self-evaluation questions.

• What is your definition of "good" writing? How does this piece reflect "good" writing?
• How did you go about completing this piece? (Talking, brainstorming, planning, webbing, etc..)
• What genre is this piece? What did you learn about this genre that you applied in your writing?
• What changes have you noticed in your use of grammar, vocabulary and spelling? How did these changes influence your piece?
• How did your selection change from rough draft to final copy?
• Which piece allowed you to learn the most about about yourself as a writer? What did you learn?
• What changes did you make to this piece to improve it?
• Look at your rough drafts and at your final drafts. Did you rewrite your unclear parts, peer or self-edit your grammar and spelling, add stuff? Tell me what you did to make it better?
• What else could be added to this piece to add to the writing process?
• What did you learn about writing from writing this piece?
• Write a one sentence summary for each paragraph to explain how you developed the theme.
• What literary devices have used in this piece? (similes, metaphors, personification, alliteration, foreshadowing, etc...). Make a list and give an example of each from your piece.
• Does any piece in your portfolio make a direct connection with something you read? Which piece? How does it connect to the piece of literature?
• Have you taken a risk as a writer this year? (written something different, longer, more difficult...) Why? Why not?

Preparing for a Student-Teacher conference: some guidelines for teachers

Student-Teacher Portfolio Conference (adapted from Farr & Tone, 1998)

A portfolio conference is the primary opportunity for the vital discussions and review of ideas that are the heart of the portfolio process.

The key to conferencing is creating a comfortable environment in which the student can ask questions on a one on one basis with their teacher.

Ways to think about conferencing:

• conferencing brings up questions about the portfolio content and brings the portfolio into clearer focus;
• conferencing settles organizational problems and gives the student and teacher time to work on this skill;
• conferencing encourages analysis, comparisons of pieces of student's own work;
• conferencing provides for individualized learning and lends itself to the development of IEP's;
• conferencing can generate clear goals for both the student and teacher.

Getting Clear Direction out of the Conference

With the conference, you want to:

• Help the student to reflect about his/her own reading and writing activities; to understand language use as a process; and to assume responsibility for his/her own improvement.
• Learn all you can about a student's ideas, reading and writing interests, habits, overall abilities, attitudes toward language, and development as a language learner.
• Establish some self-directed goals for language development and set instructional priorities that will help them meet them.

Conference Schedules

Create a time schedule where the students can sign up to meet with the teacher. 10-15 minutes would be the goal for beginning conferences.

However, a quick discussion on a regular basis with each student, this can be as short as a minute, ensures the students are on the right track with their learning.

Suggestions in relation to managing conferences

• Conference with a few students each week, this will prevent the end of term crunch.
• Invite your volunteer parents to read to the group while you conference with students.
• Include the resource teacher, s/he can work with larger groups while you conference.
• Conference with small groups of students instead of one-on-one.
• Conferencing during library periods, where the students understand their role and can be assisted by the librarians and you are then free to have a few moments to meet with various students.

Let us know what classroom strategies you use to manage conferences!
Write to: portfolio@learnquebec.ca

Questions to ask about writing

How did you organize your portfolio?

• Why did you organize it this way?
• How did you decide what pieces should be submitted?
• What ideas did you consider as important?

Tell me about a piece of writing:

• Why did you select this piece?
• Why is this piece of writing important to you?
• Why did you decide to write this?
• Where did you get this idea?
• Would you like to read it to me?
• Did you have any problems writing this?
• Did anyone help you with your writing?
• In what way did they help you?
• What was the easiest/hardest part when writing this piece?
• Who did you write this for?
• Have you tried writing any different pieces (genres) such as stories, letters, notes, journals?
• Did you try something new this term?
• Did you seek any help when writing this?

How have you progressed as a writer since your first submission?

• Tell me about one new thing that you have learned about writing
• What is different about the things that you wrote this time?
• Have you tried any different types of writing?

What are you intending to write next?

• How can I help you with this?
• How do you plan to start?
• Is there someone with whom you would like to work?

Did you work on your goal this term?