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MySprings Student Portfolios Guide: What is a portfolio?

Lynn Le
  • Updated

This is for Academies, Homeschool, ILP, and Seat-based academies that need to provide samples for IS students.

 

This article is a general overview of Student Portfolios. Please see the Related Articles section at the bottom for further details and more in-depth instructions.

 

WHAT ARE PORTFOLIO SAMPLES?

The state of CA requires all Independent Study schools to collect samples of student work as evidence that they are real and participating members of the school. At SCS Portfolio Samples are collected once per semester for each student. This is one example of your student's best work in each learning area. We upload them into MySprings for portfolio assignments and keep them for when we are audited each year.

 

The learning areas that we need a sample for include for Transitional Kindergarten - 8th grade:

  • History/Social Studies
    • Examples: geography work, written report, worksheets on famous people, chapter review questions, a completed quiz from viewing a BrainPOP video related to an area of history
  • Language Arts
    • Examples: reading comprehension questions, grammar worksheet, journal writing, phonics worksheet, essay, spelling work
  • Math
    • Examples: math facts practice page, math lesson worksheet
  • Science
    • Examples: written explanation/summary of the content read, worksheet, lab report or journal, a completed quiz from viewing a BrainPOP video related to an area of science
  • Electives
    • Examples: art, music, foreign language, healthy living, PE (monthly log of daily
      Activities or a photo of an activity)
    • Need a good elective sample? Try BrainPop or BrainPop Jr. Have your student view a video on health, art, or music, then take the quiz on the computer and save it as a PDF to upload to MySprings, or print out the quiz and have him/her take it, then scan and upload to MySprings.

7th/8th grade students taking a math or foreign language course for high school credit:

  • Samples will be collected in the MySprings high school course

 

WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS?

  • Pick the best! We want to see that your student tried his/her best. An edited piece of writing is good, especially if it shows the writing process.
  • No worksheets that are sectarian.
  • All work must be grade-level appropriate or ES/HCT approved.
  • Samples must be WORK actually completed by the student, not just a grade sheet or certificate.
  • If you submit a photo of an activity as proof of work in any area, it MUST be put on the Portfolio Photo Form

PREPARE SAMPLES

  • Please ensure that the student’s name is on the sample
  • Please DATE each sample with date it was completed, including the year (and be certain the DATE is a school day)
  • Complete the Portfolio Photo Form for any samples that are activity photos
  • To use a photo for the elective:  PHOTO FORM to complete electronically

TURNING IN PORTFOLIO SAMPLES

After choosing your samples please make sure they meet the portfolio requirements (above).

  • TIP: If they are PDFs or Docs, save them in a folder you can find later.

If taking a Photo of an assignment, be ready to take a picture of the sample by following these suggestions to get the best photo.

  • Make sure the lighting is good (It’s best to take photos during the day near a window with the lights above turned off, or use a ring-light).
  • The entire sample must be easy to read and no part of it should be chopped off.
  • If it is not clear and in focus, you will be asked to retake the photo.
  • TIP: Save the photos in a file or folder you can access to upload. One option is to email them to yourself or your student's email and save them from there to the student’s Google Drive.

Upload samples to MySprings under your student’s courses.

 

FAQs:

  • What if I use a Brain Pop quiz?
    • If you use a Brain Pop quiz, please save the quiz as a PDF in your student’s Google Drive folder and upload into MySprings.
  • Do I have to electronically place a photo on the Google photo template?
    • It’s easy to do, but no; you can print the template, glue the photo to it, and write on it, then upload it.
  • Can I use a sample from sectarian curriculum if it doesn't have the name of the publisher on it?
    • No. Please don't submit any work that has come out of a religious curriculum/workbook.
    • You can go to Super Teacher Worksheets if you need a different worksheet.

 

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(These instructions are also attached as a PDF file.)

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