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Writing Portfolios in a High Stakes World

Most portfolios are used to assess learning. In this article, read how to use the writing portfolio as an instructional tool.
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Writing Portfolios in a High Stakes World

With the No Child Left Behind Act and standards-driven, outcome-based education, the notion of authentic assessment often takes a back seat to preparation for high-stakes tests.

Proponents of standardized assessment tout these tests as the quickest and most efficient method of understanding of a student's acquisition of required knowledge and skills.

Those who favor authentic assessment, such as writing portfolios, believe student learning, as demonstrated over time, provides a more reliable measure of student knowledge and skill.

Regardless, the current tide in education has shifted to the use of high stakes tests. As a result, some practitioners have put aside writing portfolios in exchange for assessment-like writing activities.

Writing portfolios and high-stakes writing tests are not mutually exclusive. Portfolios can be used in tandem with high stakes tests.

Traditional Portfolio Uses
The National Writing Project, begun in 1974, has influenced the teaching and assessing of writing on unparalleled levels. One of the most important tenets of the project was its emphasis on drafting and revision to demonstrate growth over time. This emphasis contributed tremendously to the rampant growth of portfolio assessment throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Artists have used portfolios to maintain and demonstrate a sampling of their best work for generations. Similarly, traditional writing portfolios required students to select over time their "best" pieces to include in their writing portfolio. Teachers then used the portfolios to assess writers' skills.

Shift in Portfolio Focus
The latest trend in the writing portfolio, however, is to use it as an instructional tool rather than an assessment tool. Developmental writing portfolios place the focus on a student's growth as a writer. Teachers integrate writing skills needed for high stakes tests into assignments that will make their way into the writing portfolio.

The union of writing portfolios and a standards-based writing program creates a firm basis for progressive, developmental writing instruction: it emphasizes improved writing skills while preparing students for high-stakes writing assessments.

Using Portfolios to Build Writing Skills
Incorporate the following five steps into your writing program to help students reap the benefits of portfolio-based writing.

TASK
PROCESS
Gather Writing Samples
  • Begin your writing instruction by determining the writing ability of each student.
  • Include one of the final papers the student wrote the previous year and a cold-write completed within the first few days of class.
  • Use your state, division, or school standards, coupled with the state, division, or school domain rubric, to determine class and/or student strengths and weaknesses in writing.
  • These samples should become the first artifacts in a developmental portfolio.
Organize Lessons
  • Refer to the standards for the course you are teaching to determine the writing lesson progression. Some writing purposes, such as narrative writing, are less complicated than others, such as argument or persuasion.
  • Organize lessons to progress in difficulty and to integrate stylistic and grammatical concepts.
Teach Skills Progressively
  • Teach or review an approach to writing, such as the five-step process, and chunk time either daily or weekly for students to draft writings that are similar in purpose. Copies of drafted and revised papers should become part of the developmental portfolio.
  • Once a draft is complete, teach a writing concept or skill and require students to apply the concept or skill through revision.
  • In subsequent drafts, students are responsible for consistent application of concepts and skills that have been taught. Thus, not only should final drafts become increasingly more sophisticated, but a chronological comparison of drafts should also reflect increasing complexity.
Integrate Test-Prep
  • Occasionally, build into the writing program a situation that mimics the high-stakes testing environment.
  • Provide a series of multiple-choice questions addressing the skills you have taught, and provide a writing prompt similar to that which is required by your state or division.
  • These benchmark assessments also should become part of the developmental portfolio, and students should be given time to compare performance between and among mock assessments, noting areas of strengths and weaknesses.
Require Reflection
  • Thinking about learning is important. Build time into class for students to reflect on the improvements in both drafts and revised essays.
  • Encourage students to generate 'why' and 'how' questions based on strengths and weaknesses they observe in their own writing. Use these questions for mini-lessons or class discussions.
  • Close to the high-stakes testing window, assign students the same topic that was assigned for the writing sample earlier in the year.
  • Provide students a checklist of the skills and concepts they have learned and have them compare the papers.
  • Students should be able to trace and explain their writing development through the artifacts contained in their portfolio, with the final artifact being a reflection piece describing such development.
 
Combining the strengths of authentic assessment with the needs of outcome-based standards forces the evolution of writing portfolios from a teacher assessment tool to a student-centered tool for writing improvement.
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