Lesson 13: Professional Portfolios


Attention


Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able

  • Explain the purpose of a teaching portfolio
  • Create elements of a professional portfolio

Teaching

Professional portfolios are an organized collection of materials that display your progress towards professional growth.  The portfolio is the sum of your college experience and displays your abilities related to early childhood education.  It will contain background information (resume, philosophy) teaching artifacts and reflections (materials from your experiences and course requirements) and professional information (professional activities, letters of recommendation and evaluations).

The purpose of this portfolio is to showcase your teaching practices and document your growth and development as an educator.  You might bring your portfolio to job interviews, reference its contents for future use and/or use it as a working tool to continue professional growth.  Read the article, The Benefits of Developing a Professional Portfolio and take note of what purposes stick out to you.

Then look back through and take note of all of the things you hadn’t thought of putting in your portfolio!

The purpose of the portfolio assignment in Practicum II is to get you started in what is a seemingly daunting task in Practicum III.  Here you will organize your table of contents and develop a system for collecting work to display in your teaching artifacts section. 

If you are not thoroughly familiar with the NAEYC Professional Preparation Standards, now is the time to start.  These standards are used on your practicum evaluations and are the cornerstone to displaying your work.  Each standard in  NAEYC Professional Preparation Standards contain key elements.  To assist in choosing artifacts for your portfolio, you may want to consider breaking them down into the key elements.  This will provide clarity to the reader and also ease in finding artifacts.  The body of your portfolio will display your knowledge in all six standards.  Once you have decided how you will organize this, your table of contents will be considerably easier to create.

Your table of contents will largely consist of the materials collected to display your knowledge in the six standards. 

The beginning of your portfolio however, should consist of your background information.  This information could consist of the following but is not limited to:

  • Your transcript
  • Acceptance letter to the ECE program
  • Philosophy of Education
  • Resume
  • A short autobiography

The meat of your portfolio will be the outline of materials as discussed above.  This outline should be organized and the reader should be able to use it to quickly access specific parts in the body.   

The later part of your portfolio should consist of your professional information.  This might include but is not limited to:

  • Professional activities
  • Professional awards
  • Background checks
  • Practicum evaluations
  • Letter of references

Assessment

Lesson 13 Assignment

Part One

Create a table of contents that includes background information, NAEYC standards, and Professional Information.  This table of contents will be used in your professional portfolio!  It may change but as you create it, make it meaningful!

Part Two

Create a list of artifacts from each course you have taken so far and note each standard and key element this item could meet.  Submit your list in the following format:

Course

Artifact

NAEYC Standard
      Key Element

To assure the artifact is meaningful ask yourself these three questions:

  1. Does this align with the purpose of the portfolio?
  2. Is the artifact credible and display progress toward professional growth, learning and goals?
  3. If this artifact was eliminated would it take reduce the credibility of your portfolio?

Part Three

Create an introduction summary to your portfolio.  This summary should be a paragraph long and give an explanation to your portfolio organization and purpose.  What exactly do you want your reader to know as they look through your portfolio?  Even though you are creating this summary after your table of contents and list of artifact it will be the firstitem the reader sees when looking at your portfolio.

In the drop box you will submit your assignment parts in the following order:

An introduction summary
A table of contents
A list of artifacts

Of note: You do NOT have to pass in items in the table of contents or the list of artifacts.  You are simply listing them in preparation for the final portfolio in Practicum III.

 

Introduction Summary

0 Points

Did not provide summary

10 Points

Summary is unclear and contains few details.  Uncertainty of  how the summary relates to the organization and purpose of the portfolio

20 Points

Summary is clear and detailed and captures the organization and purpose of the portfolio

 

Table of contents professional background

0 Points

Table of contents did not provide professional background

7 Points

Table of contents is missing required artifacts

15 Points

Table of contents list at least transcript, philosophy and resume

 

Table of contents NAEYC Standards

0 Points

Table of contents did not contain NAEYC standards

10

List is incomplete and does not contain all of the NAEYC standards and key elements

20 Points

Table of contents list every NAEYC standard and key elements

 

Table of contents professional information

0 Points

Table of contents did not contain professional information

7 Points

Table of contents is missing required artifacts

15 Points

Table of contents list at least one practicum evaluation and three letter of references

 

List of possible artifacts

0 Points

Did not provide a list of possible artifacts

10 Points

List is incomplete and/or does not align with standards and key elements

20 Points

Lists at least three artifacts from each course taken thus far.  Artifacts are noted on which standard and key element they meet.

 

Grammar

0 Points

Written with unacceptable spelling, grammar, and/or syntax errors

5 Points

Errors in mechanics are minor, but are somewhat distracting from the message.

10 Points

No substantial errors in spelling, grammar, and/or syntax, or APA Citations.