Writing Portfolios in the Classroom

by Calfee, Robert C., Ph.D.; Perfumo, Pamela

• ISBN13: 9780805818369
• ISBN10: 0805818367
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-08-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This volume presents chapters by researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who study the impact of classroom portfolios in the assessment of writing achievement by elementary and middle grade students. The focus throughout the volume is on the tension between classroom assessment and externally mandated testing. It presents the efforts of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to understand the impact of classroom portfolios for the assessment of writing achievement by elementary and middle grade students. Under the auspices of the Center for the Study of Writing, the editors conducted a national survey of exemplary portfolio projects, arranged for a series of "video visits," and held several working conferences. The result of this work is a broad-ranging tale: the aspirations of teachers and administrators to move the machinery of schooling in the direction of more authentic and engaging tasks, the puzzlement of students when they realize that the assignments are real and that the teacher may not have a "right answer" in mind, and the tensions between ivory-tower ideas and everyday classroom practice. Divided into four sections, this research volume: * provides a historical perspective, develops the conceptual framework that serves as a background for many activities described throughout, and discusses numerous practical issues that confront today's researchers and practitioners; * views the phenomenon of writing portfolios through a variety of broadview lenses such as teacher enthusiasm, student reflection, assessment tension, the portfolio as metaphor, and the locus of control; * conveys important conceptual issues with a balance toward pragmatics; and * offers unique insights from the perspective of one individual who serves as scholar, researcher, and teacher.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
PART I: AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT OF CLASSROOM WRITING
Classroom Writing Portfolios: Old, New, Borrowed, Blue	3	(24)
Robert C. Calfee
Sarah Warshauer Freedman
Portfolios for Classroom Assessment: Design and Implementation Issues	27	(36)
Joan L. Herman
Maryl Gearhart
Pamela R. Aschbacher
PART II: GUIDEPOSTS FROM RESEARCH
A National Survey of Writing Portfolio Practice: What We Learned and What It Means	63	(20)
Robert C. Calfee
Pamela Perfumo
Dialogue, Interplay, and Discovery: Mapping the Role and the Rhetoric of Reflection in Portfolio Assessment	83	(20)
Kathleen Blake Yancey
Moving Toward Systemic Coherence: A Discussion of Conflicting Perspectives on Portfolio Assessment	103	(46)
Sandra Murphy
Roberta Camp
Sailing Ships: A Framework for Portfolios in Formative and Summative Systems	149	(30)
Miles Myers
The Metaphor of the Portfolio and the Metaphors in Portfolios: The Relation of Classroom-Based to Large-Scale Assessment	179	(24)
Sarah L. Jordan
Alan C. Purves
Tensions in Assessment: The Battle Over Portfolios, Curriculum, and Control	203	(16)
James M. Wile
Robert J. Tierney
PART III: THE VIEW FROM THE FIELD
Video Visits: A Practical Approach for Studying Portfolios	219	(20)
Pamela Perfumo
Promoting Student Self-Assessment Through Portfolios, Student-Facilitated Conferences, and Cross-Age Interaction	239	(22)
Margaret Klimenkov
Nina LaPick
Portfolios: Bridging Cultural and Linguistic Worlds	261	(24)
Nanette Koelsch
Elise Trumbull
Teacher Parity in Assessment With the California Learning Record	285	(18)
Mary A. Barr
Phyllis J. Hallam
Profiles and Portfolios: Helping Primary-Level Teachers See the Big Picture	303	(24)
Susan Carey Biggam
Nancy Teitelbaum
Restructuring Student Assessment and Living to Tell About It	327	(22)
Carol M. McCabe
PART IV: THE POTENTIAL OF WRITING PORTFOLIOS
Portfolios: The Good, The Bad, and the Beautiful	349	(10)
Patricia A. Belanoff
Author Index	359	(6)
Subject Index	365