Teacher+Research+Proposal


 * Teacher Research Proposal**
 * Proposal:** Do portfolios effectively measure students’ writing skills, ability to reflect, and progress?

As a student myself, I have always felt that writing portfolios are one of the best methods for assessing students’ knowledge and comprehension of literature. I believe this because there is much opportunity here to revise, expand, and reflect upon one’s initial work. However, the more I think about it, the more I became unsure of its true effect on measuring students’ writing skills, ability to reflect, and progress. Therefore, I set out to investigate what other professionals and educators in the field had to say about the matter.

The Michigan High School Content Expectations for English Language Arts has two standards which identifies portfolio-type writing. It is found in 11th grade standards 1.1: Understand and practice writing as a recursive process, and 1.5: Produce a variety of written, spoken, multigenre, and multimedia works, making conscious choices about language, form, style, and/or visual representation for each work. In addition, the Common Core Standards for English also have a standard which relates to portfolio-type of writing. It is found in Writing component for grades 6-12, in strand 10: Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.

I am often asked the question “What are you studying in school?” Once, I tell people I am majoring in education, I am usually greeted with negative remarks about how I will never find a job in Michigan. Their next question is almost always “Well, what is your major?” This also usually grants me with more negativity, in addition to grunts and moans. It seems that many people have a cynical impression of the subject English. So I always make it a point to ask why they feel this way, and you want to know what they say nine times out of ten?! “I hate writing.” I find this ironic when writing is so deeply rooted in our everyday lives. So my answer is as simple as this- I want my students to view writing as something enjoyable. I want to promote and instill a love and appreciation for reading and writing. No more grunts and moans please. Therefore, as a future teacher, I feel that there is a window of opportunity here to make a positive impression on students, concerning the topic writing in general. Portfolios, at the very least give students a chance to showcase their achievements and favorite works of writing. I think this is crucial in helping students see how worthwhile and fun writing can be. However, I always hoped that portfolios also helped students engage in a reflection on their current writing strengths and weaknesses. I think reflecting on your strengths and weaknesses are important in forming a mature and thoughtful writing style, in addition to gauging your progress. In conclusion, I am now a bit unsure of this assumption. So, let the research begin!
 * Rationale:**

I was given the opportunity to interview the ninth grade English teacher, Ms. Richberg, from Skyline High School recently. I learned a great deal about her methods for formative and summative assessments for writing about literature. In addition to the interview, I have also been doing my pre-service hours in the classroom, which means that I have been lucky enough to see her methods put into practice. I was most interested in her answer to my question about her methods for summative assessments in particular when she mentioned the words “electronic portfolio.” Right then and there, I knew that was what I wanted to explore further for this project.
 * Review:**

The students at Skyline High School are required to create a website or electronic portfolio in their English 9 class their freshman year of school, which they will fill with mostly summative writing assessments for their entire four years of high school. According to Ms. Richberg, the accumulation of writing assignments in the portfolio are thought to highlight students’ writing abilities and show progress over time. However, during the first trimester of English 9, she spends the majority of the time reminding the students that the websites need to be created in the first place, in order for her to give them create for their first ‘mastery’ project, which is required by the department to have uploaded by the end of the trimester. Mastery projects are summative assignments that are worth a significant number of points, in comparison to other forms of summative assessments in the classroom. This could range from a variety of formal and creative writing assignments. However, in addition to the electronic portfolio, she also uses tests, formal essays, and other mastery projects as forms of summative assessments in her classroom.

I asked Ms. Richberg if her methods for summative assessments had changed since she first started her teaching career, and if so, what did it used to be? Her reply was that there is a larger emphasis now on the //portfolio// now rather than on tests than when she first started teaching. She specifically said that this creates “more focus on alignment to standards.” Also, when I asked her if she had any plans of changing or tweaking what she does, she said that there wasn’t at the moment because portfolios are believed to be one of the best practices, which also align well with the standards in her department. This gave me hope for my original assumption about writing portfolios, but I knew it wasn’t enough to convince me entirely of their effectiveness, which is why I conducted further research immediately.

I found two interesting articles, which offer varying, but still similar perspectives on using portfolios as a means of a summative assessment for writing. The first article is “Looking in the Mirror: Helping Adolescents Talk More Reflectively during Portfolio Presentations” by Tim Frederick and the second is “Summative Evaluation in Reading” by Marlow Ediger. Both articles bring up valid points concerning the strengths and weaknesses of portfolios.

Frederick believes in the power of portfolios through means of authentic reflection. He goes on to say that portfolios offer students the opportunity to ideally reflect upon three specific and important sub skills. “These skills are: (1) Students can clearly articulate that they learned a skill and are able to name the skill (e.g., how to write a better introduction for an expository essay); (2) they are able to point to evidence in their work that shows that specific learning; and (3) they are able to set goals for future learning” (par.4). However, after implementing portfolios into his course of methods in the beginning of his teacher career, he ran into a wall; the cover letters in the portfolios were not being used by the students as an authentic reflection process. Therefore, he changed the rubric for the portfolio in a big way. Frederick changed the cover letter element from a writing means to a verbal means. It specifically changed from writing a cover letter to a “10-minute one-on-one conference during which students would be asked to present and discuss their portfolios with me at the end of each semester and then set future goals” (par.8). The results from this conference were astronomical, in terms of the types of responses he received from the students. Of course, this was after teaching mini-lessons of using reflective statements during the conference.

Overall, Frederick stated “Out of 100 students presenting portfolios of more than 15 pieces each, I heard only a handful of nonreflective statements. It seemed that they had taken what they learned in the mini-lesson on reflective statements and applied it directly to their presentations” (par.19). Impressive results, might I add. Therefore, Frederick is a huge advocate for portfolios, when the cover letter aspect is slightly tweaked to a verbal conference with the teacher. He ultimately believes in their power to effectively measure students’ writing skills, reflections, and progress. Ediger on the other hand, while acknowledges the advantages of using portfolios as well, sees more than one downfall of using them as a means of summative assessment. For instance, Ediger says “there is more subjectivity in portfolio evaluation as compared to assessing state mandated tests” (par15.). In addition, Ediger also believes that portfolios often become “too voluminous” and often “unmanageable for evaluators to make appropriate judgments as to its worth and quality” (par.13). These are elements of portfolios that will always have to be taken into consideration. Possibly more importantly though, in relation to my proposal, Ediger only mentions the effectiveness of portfolios evaluating the progression of students’ writing skills, and progress, but not their ability to reflect. However, the reflective process element discussed by Frederick give me hope for its effectiveness when tweaked for optimal results. Overall, the combination of both articles revives me with confidence again, concerning the use of portfolios in the classroom as a means of summative assessment.

If I had a classroom in which to study student work about writing about literature, in terms of the use of portfolios, I would concentrate on a revised question, in relation to my initial proposal. I am already convinced that portfolios measure the effectiveness of students’ writing abilities and progress, but I would like to find out first-hand how effective it is for measuring the effectiveness of measuring students’ ability to reflect. Therefore, I would conduct a similar experiment to Frederick, in terms of having students write reflective cover letters, and having students give verbal reflections. I would separate my classes in half. The first classes of my day would develop portfolios with written cover letters, and the last classes of my day would develop portfolios with verbal conferences. I would keep all remaining elements of the portfolio the same, such as the number of works included, the rubric (minus the cover letter aspect), the time allotted for completion, the process of self-review and peer-review, and the presentation of the portfolio itself. However, unlike Frederick, I would not base the majority of their grade upon the reflection process itself, because while I find it important, I do not find it to be more important than evaluating the student’s achievement and progress. I feel they are all equally crucial goals of a portfolio.
 * Method:**

Ideally, by the end of the semester, or year, I would hope to have come to a conclusion myself about which reflection process more accurately defines the students’ reflective abilities. I may even begin to wonder if both could be used in conjunction with one another, as the best way to gauge the effectiveness of portfolios for writing about literature. Consequently, this would lead me to conduct a second experiment the next semester or year, in order to find out.

**Works Cited** Ediger, Marlow. "Summative Evaluation in Reading." (2002): 15 pars. //ERIC; Resources in Education//. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. [].

Frederick, Tim. "Looking in the Mirror: Helping Adolescents Talk More Reflectively during Portfolio Presentations." //Teachers College Record// 111.8 (2009): 29 pars. //ERIC; Resources in Education//. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. [].