The School Year Portfolio      

All students will begin working on this assignment at the start of each new school year or as soon as you start as a student during the school year.  The groundwork for this digital portfolio is part of the New Student Assignment and part of the 3x4 Returning Student Assignment. Near the end of each spring semester, at our Open House Night, you will present your digital portfolio. It is our "Open House Portfolio Night" !

You have to make an entirely new portfolio each year.  

Research has shown that academic portfolios are an outstanding opportunity for students and so we don't want Valley Oaks students to miss out!  Here is a page of text explaining the importance of your portfolio.

Good luck, students, and have fun being creative and reflecting on your lives, your education, and who you are!

Instructions

A.  There are many types of portfolios but the primary purpose of these particular portfolios is to showcase your learning and personal and academic growth that occurred during the school year.  These portfolios will be the focus of our Open House Night in May.  We want you to make the display of and reflection on your work samples the highlight of your portfolio. 

Schools hold Open House Nights to let students and teachers (and parents and other staff members) "brag" about what an awesome year students have had in terms of learning and growth.  Our job as teachers and adults in your life is to challenge you to grow and learn. At Open House Night, we teachers and staff and your parents/family/friends all want to see and celebrate all the most significant evidence of your learning and growth. 

In the old days of Open House Nights, teachers would physically display student work samples around the room and would stand in front of the classroom and give a talk about all the great things that happened for students' growth and learning over the year.  Our modern-day Digital Portfolio Night is much better!

B.   Groundwork for Building Your Portfolio from the New Student Assignment and 3x4 Returning Student Assignment 

In addition to earning over half of an elective credit for the time you spend doing this groundwork, you will also earn more elective credit for all your time to complete your final portfolio and to come to Open House Portfolio Night and present it.

C.  Of the four platforms that you can choose from to make your portfolio, Google Sites is the platform to use if you are a beginner.  Here are the instructions for building a Google Site.  We highly recommend that you do not use Google Sites if you already know how to use Google Sites.  The other three platforms will introduce you to many unique creative features, challenge you and develop your technical skills, and allow you to create an impressive and professional portfolio.  The new skills you learn will benefit you in your post-high school academic and professional lives.  The four platforms to choose from are 1) Google Sites, 2) Book Creator, 3) Adobe Express, and 4) Wakelet 

D.  At our 9/12/23 assembly, Laura Bradly, our school district's tech expert, presented this slideshow of instructions for each platform.  Please study these slides and then ask a staff member for help if needed.

E.  Your portfolio needs to have seven components (for the 8th, give it a try but if it's not there it's okay):

       1) an "About Me" section or page - Requirements                            2) a Dedication section or page - Requirements    

       3) a section or page for each semester's Community Service - Requirements    

       4) a Goals/Dreams section or page - Requirements                     5) Creativity - use of color and/or uploaded pictures/images     

               6) a section or page that presents your hobbies or extra-curricular activities

               7) Most Importantly:  Two to four work samples with careful reflections from each of your courses for the entire year         

               8) Less Importantly:  Use of more advanced technical tools from the platform like buttons, adding sound or video, etc.

F.   Instructions for the Work Sample Reflection Paragraphs

Other Information

Checklist used for grading portfolios (including the rubric)

Interview Questions for Portfolio Open House Night 

Example of a Book Creator Portfolio

Examples of Google Sites Portfolios

1. 1. Farah Loll, 11th grade
   2. Leith Almanaseer, 9th grade
   3. EXAMPLES of in-progress, not finished Google Sites Digital Portfolios (the reflection paragraphs are not done in these examples)