Kimberly A. Williams’ Professional Portfolio

1. Kimberly A. Williams’ Professional Portfolio

2. Table of Contents Introduction Educational Experiences Educational Philosophy Instructional Strategies Learning Environment Instructional Resources Assessment Protocols: Formal Informal Technology Deaf Education Resources Representative Instructional Unit Reference List

3. Introduction • During my high school years, it was when I decided to become a teacher for the deaf children. Becoming a teacher was the last career choice I thought I would ever make. A doctor, a lawyer, and a psychologist were all the career choices that I considered when I was growing up. Being a part of the school system was something that I have experienced since age 3. Due to that experience, I have always told myself that I did not want to become a teacher. If I became a teacher, then I would spend my entire life in the school system. But all of that changed during my high school years. When I was in high school, I was always helping other deaf students in the class with homework or explaining how to perform different tasks. It was something that I really enjoyed doing. That was when I started to realize that teaching was an appropriate career choice for me. I really enjoyed helping the other deaf students with their homework or explaining a concept to them. Once they understood, it was a good feeling to have. I just really enjoyed helping others to learn. Ever since, I just knew that I wanted to be a teacher for the deaf children.

4. Introduction • I also realized that I wanted to be a teacher because I wanted to be a role model for the deaf children. When I was growing up, I never really had many deaf role models in my life other than my deaf parents and their deaf friends. I never had any deaf teachers when I was attending Wickliffe City Schools. From that experience, I realized that there were not many deaf teachers who taught deaf children. That even gave me greater motivation and desire to become a teacher for the deaf children. Knowing that I am deaf myself, I know that I can relate even better with deaf children than hearing teachers could. I would want the deaf children to have the opportunity to experience having a deaf teacher in the classroom. This helped me to make my decision about entering the field of deaf education in order to become a teacher for the deaf children.

5. Educational Experiences • Introduction: • Throughout my years in the schools, I have been exposed to many different teachers. Teachers that I have been exposed to are the teachers that I have been taught to throughout my educational years and the teachers that I have been placed with for my practicum and two student teaching experiences. Unfortunately, I have spent time with teachers who have exhibited negative teaching characteristics. That had made me determined to become a teacher who will have many of the positive teaching characteristics to be exhibited in the classroom.

6. Educational Experiences • Introduction • I have learned some of the positive teaching characteristics by surrounding myself with the best teachers during my student teaching experiences and some of my professors during my collegiate years. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to be taught and mentored by some of the best teachers. By having these positive and negative experiences, it has altered my ways of teaching. It forced me to reflect on different kinds of characteristics that makes a best or a worst teacher. It has made me realize what kinds of characteristics that it takes to be an effective teacher for the students.

7. Educational Experiences • Negative Teacher Characteristics: • Unorganized • Does not respect students’ opinions and their cultures • Has poor class management skills • Does not meet students’ needs • Lack of enthusiasm or motivation in teaching • Not creative • Impatient • Not knowledgeable • Embarrasses the students • Has negative attitude towards students • Lack of effective signing skills

8. Educational Experiences • Positive Teacher Characteristics: • Makes learning FUN • Fair • Respectful • Open-minded • Goal oriented • Clear and concise • Good listener • Creative • Encouraging • Helpful • Meets the needs of EACH student • Has sense of humor

9. Educational Experiences • Conclusion: • The information presented here is something that I need to reflect on throughout my teaching career. It is very vital for me to occasionally reflect on the list of positive teaching characteristics. So that I will develop these characteristics and become an effective teacher as I progress my teaching career in the future. It is possible that my list of negative and positive teaching characteristics will change over the years as I gain more experience teaching. My ultimate goal is to have the students to view me as one of the teachers has positive teaching characteristics.

10. Educational Philosophy • Introduction: • In this section, my purpose is to express my philosophy of education. Every teacher has their own educational philosophy, which is a set of beliefs about how teaching should be implemented in the classroom. There are many different educational philosophies among the teachers. That is why it is important to have this section so that you can see what is my philosophy is regarding education. I have developed my educational philosophy based on my coursework at Gallaudet University and Kent State University and my practicum experiences in the schools.

11. Educational Philosophy • Constructivism • My philosophy of teaching is parallel with constructivism. I feel that this philosophy is really beneficial for the students if teachers how have this philosophy teach them. My goal is to have a constructivist classroom where the pursuit of student questions is highly valued. (Orlich & Harder & Callahan & Gibson, 2001) • Students viewed as thinkers • The students are viewed as thinkers with emerging theories of the world. I always have believed that children need to work in groups more often. They do need some individual work from time to time. But I really want to have a classroom where students primarily work in groups because they can really learn a lot by working with their peers. (Tompkins, 1998)

12. Educational Philosophy • Interactive classroom • My belief is that the teacher should behave in an interactive manner mediating the environment for the students. My philosophy reflects the thinking that students should be doing numerous hands-on activities. Therefore, the curricular activities rely heavily on primary sources of data and manipulative materials. The teacher should make sure that the classroom would be student-centered at most of the times. • Teacher as a facilitator • The teacher is just there to provide guidance to the students. Teachers should be letting the students do most of the talking. The teacher encourages students to engage in dialogue, both with the teacher and with one another

13. Educational Philosophy • Informal assessment • As for determining the grade of each student, the assessment of student learning is interwoven with teaching and occurs though teacher observations of students at work and through student exhibitions and portfolios. • Value students’ comments • Too many times, teachers do not give the opportunity for students to express their opinions. Some teachers do not make the time to listen to the students. I believe that it is very important for the teachers to listen when the students are saying something. When a student says that he/she is bored, the teacher needs to listen and reflect upon on what the student just said. Too many times, we disregard students’ comments just because they are only students and not colleagues. It does indeed hurt the ability to have good rapport with the students in the long run.

14. Educational Philosophy • Reflective teaching • Being able to reflect upon lessons is the main ingredient to become a successful teacher. I believe that it is important to continuously reflect on the lessons that were taught because there is always room for improvement. No teacher is perfect and to be able to reflect upon your teaching will make you an excellent teacher in the long run.

15. Educational Philosophy • Conclusion: • This is currently my philosophy of teaching. It is different from my teachers that I have had during my elementary school years. This philosophy is very different because most of the teachers that I have had in the past did not have student – centered classrooms. I mostly worked alone focusing on the worksheets during my elementary and high school years. I did not have many chances to experience cooperative learning (group work). I hope to apply this philosophy that I have to my future classroom.

16. Instructional Strategies • Introduction: • The purpose of this section is to present some of the key instructional strategies that I believe is very important. Those instructional strategies are the ones that I have learned throughout my experience in the teacher preparation programs at Gallaudet University and Kent State University. It is important to have instructional strategies because they do reflect my teaching philosophy. The instructional strategies also reflect my personal teaching beliefs and style for my classroom instruction. My instructional strategies can be applicable to all subjects and grade levels.

17. Instructional Strategies • Cooperative Learning • It is important have cooperative learning in the classroom because it will teach students to learn how to work together in a small-group setting. Teamwork is a very important concept for students to learn. Also, the students can gain some independence by working on their own or with others rather than to depend on the teachers constantly for help. (Augustine & Gruber & Hanson, 1990). • Students as Active Learners • The students need to be actively involved in their learning. They need opportunities to explore, discover, and discuss, and apply all subjects in their world. Students may not have the motivation to learn if they are always passive in the classroom knowing that the teacher will be the one to present new information to the students. (Reutzel & Cooter, 1996).

18. Instructional Strategies • Use KWL • This is one instructional strategy that I believe can be very effective with the students. This gives the teacher an opportunity to present a topic and find out what the student’s previous knowledge on that particular subject. “K” stands for “what you already know.” The teacher can find out what students already know on that topic so that the teacher does not repeat the same information. “W” stands for “what do you want to learn.” The teacher can find out what the students’ interests are on this topic. The students will learn what they are interested in knowing. “L” stands for “what have you learned.” At the end of the lesson, the teacher can find out what new information that the students have learned from this topic. (Reutzel & Cooter, 1996).

19. Instructional Strategies • Give plenty of wait time for the students to answer questions • It is important for the teachers to give students time for them to answer the question. Too often, a teacher would not give students enough time to answer after asking a question. The teacher usually moves on to another student who already knows the answer. Therefore, it is important to increase the amount of wait time during questioning in order to encourage participation among the students. (Orlich, et.al., 2001). • Use semantic web • This is a good way for teachers to use in order to organize information about a new or unfamiliar topic. It can help students to see how one piece of information is related to another piece of information. The ideas on the semantic web are all organized and it will help students to visualize the information better and see how they are related to each other. (Orlich, et.al., 2001)

20. Instructional Strategies • Use observations and interviews • I believe that it is very important to include that as one of the key instructional strategies. There are teachers who rely solely lectures and activities in order to teach the students. It is also important for the teacher to observe the students to identify patterns of student process errors. Teachers can also interview or observe the students to see how they feel about a particular subject or their knowledge about a subject. (Johnson, 2000). • Use variety of lesson plans (different activities) • It is important for teachers to use variety of activities to make it more interesting for the students. The teachers should include activities that would include lectures, role-playing, hands-on activities, group work, reading with partner, silent reading, and many more. The purpose of using different kinds of lesson plans is to prevent from students experiencing boredom in the classroom.

21. Instructional Strategies • Progression of learning • In that concept, there are several steps that I believe are vital in teaching students to learn. The teachers should begin with hands-on activities with actual objects when introducing a topic (concrete level of learning). After that, the teacher should move on to a matching of the actual object with pictorial representations of the object (semi-concrete level of learning). Then, the teacher should move on to matching the pictorial representations to a symbolic representation of the object (abstract level of learning). • Use guided inductive inquiry when doing hands-on activities • This is a strategy that can be done with many activities. The concept is that the teacher will be the question asker. The students will be allowed to explore or investigate something. The teacher will be present in order to guide their learning. The teacher is not there to give the answers to the students but to promote their curiousness about an object.

22. Instructional Strategies • Teach activities that promote cognitive thinking from students • This is very important for teachers to have activities that would encourage students to use their thinking skills. Many students have struggled in developing their thinking skills because they do not have the opportunity to develop it. Teachers are always giving them information rather than to have the students to think for themselves. The teacher should promote cognitive thinking from the students by giving them activities that would promote cognitive challenge and require the students to show a deep understanding of the subject matter.

23. Instructional Strategies • Meet the students’ needs • Based my practicum experience, I learned that it is important to plan some lessons according to the students’ likes even if you may not feel agree it is the best way of learning (e.g. students love worksheets – teacher use worksheets as part of the lesson even if the teacher does not like it). It is important to do that because the teacher is taking into consideration regarding the students’ likes and dislikes. In a sense, the teacher is trying to meet the students’ needs by planning activities that the students enjoy. • “Laugh and Smile” when teaching becomes difficult • This is something that I have learned at my practicum. You need to have sense of humor. It is important to have the ability to laugh and smile when things seem so hard. There will be times when you will have the most difficult students or when it seems like it is impossible to teach the students anything.

24. Instructional Strategies • Make lesson plans applicable to students’ lives • As I have spent time in Dr. Harold Johnson’s class, I have realized how critical it is to have lesson plans to be applicable in the students’ lives. It makes more of an impact to the students when they are learning information that they can use in their daily life.

25. Instructional Strategies • Conclusion: • All of the concepts listed are different instructional strategies that can be used in a classroom. Those are the strategies that describe how I would want to teach in my classroom. Different instructional strategies that I have listed are based on my experiences in the university coursework, and my practicum experience in public and private schools. Also, the instructional strategies reflect my educational philosophy of teaching. For example, I strongly believe that teachers should behave in an interactive manner while teaching. One of the teaching strategies is to have the the students to be involved in hands-on activities and be active learners. In conclusion, these experiences have led me to believe that these are the instructional strategies that will be effective when teaching the students.

26. Learning Environment • Introduction: • The definition of learning environment is having an environment where the students can effectively learn. It is also should bean environment where students can feel at ease. It can be contributed to the physical characteristics of the classroom. It can also be contributed to how the teacher would operate things in the classroom and use instructional strategies effectively. The purpose of this section is to explain my ideas of what would make an environment where students would be able to effectively learn.

27. Learning Environment • Flexibility in the classroom • Being flexible is often the key to having an effective learning environment. The students will feel more at ease in the classroom knowing that the teacher is flexible and is willing to adapt to the needs of the students. Being flexible does not necessarily mean that the students have the freedom to do anything they want. Flexibility involves having a teacher who is capable of making necessary changes to make the students learn effectively. (Woolfolk, 1995). • Reinforce positive behavior • Students would feel more motivated to learn knowing that their good behavior does not go unnoticed. Based on my past experiences, teachers spend too much time attending students who have behavior problems. The students who do behave well do not receive any compliments from the teacher. I believe that it is important for the well-behaved students to receive attention from the teacher. (Kennedy & Tipps, 1997).

28. Learning Environment • Establish Basic Rules and Procedures and Explain the Consequences • The teachers who set rules and procedures for handling predictable problems create an effective learning environment. By explaining the rules and procedures to the students, the students have a better idea of what the teacher’s expectations are. Procedures can include administrative tasks, student movement, housekeeping, routines for running lessons, interaction between students and teachers, and interactions among students. Consequences are explained so that teacher and the students know what will happen. (Woolfolk, 1995). • Provide manipulatives and visual aids in the classroom • I strongly believe that the students learn at their best when they are able to experience some hands-on activities. The teachers should have many materials available to the students to use while learning. It is also important to have different visual aids on the walls in the classroom. It provides more opportunities for the students to be exposed to new information. (Kennedy & Tipps, 1997).

29. Learning Environment • Set up an area in the classroom for enjoyable reading • Dividing up the space in the classroom into different areas may be beneficial for the students. One area should be considered to be the reading area. There would be some beanbags on the floor. The students can go to that area to do some silent reading and be comfortable. They can also use that area if they are interfering other students and they need to sit quietly until they can start behaving appropriately again. (Reutzel & Cooter, 1996). • Accept Diversity • Unique considerations are necessary for teachers who may need to assist children with special needs and those with cultural or linguistic differences. It is important for the teacher to be open-minded to all students that comes in the classroom. Once the teacher is sensitive to the needs of all the students, the students will feel motivated to learn in the classroom knowing that they are accepted.

30. Learning Environment • Organization • In order to have an effective learning environment, a teacher needs to be organized. That is because the classrooms are by nature multidimensional, full of simultaneous activities, fast-paced, unpredictable, and affected by the history of students’ and teachers’ actions. By being organized, it will help the teacher to effectively juggle all these elements every day better. • Give one mini-break each day • This is something that I have learned from my student teaching experience. My student teacher always made sure that her students had one mini-break in the morning. The break only lasts 15 minutes. During that time, the teacher would read aloud from a book while the students listened. It gives students time to recuperate and have more energy to complete tasks throughout the day. I thought that it was very effective because the students were ready to learn some more after that mini-break.

31. Learning Environment • Clear and effective communication • Communication between teacher and student is essential when problems arise. All interactions between people (even silence or neglect) communicate some meaning. It is important for the teacher to listen to the students. Teachers need to avoid passive and hostile responses and have active problem solving with the students. It will help to open the lines of positive communication between teacher and student. • Willingness to adapt • The teacher need to have this willingness to adapt anything in the teaching or the classroom itself in order to meet the students’ needs. Every student that comes in the classroom has different needs. The teacher needs to be willing to adapt to the students’ needs whenever possible. A teacher cannot be set in his/her own ways. That will not create an effective learning environment for the students.

32. Learning Environment • Formulate an individual behavior plan for each student • As I have spent time in my practicum setting, I have been exposed to students who have behavior problems. My practicum teacher has repeatedly said that you need to use different behavior plan for each student in order to effectively teach in the class and to have the class in order. (Tucker, 2001).

33. Learning Environment • Conclusion: • These are different factors that I strongly believe that will contribute positively into having an effective learning environment. It is very vital to have an effective learning environment for the students. If the environment lacks the idea/feel of wanting to learn, then there will not be many opportunities for students to learn. That will hurt the students’ chances of achieving in the future. By implementing different factors that were listed earlier in the classroom along with effective instructional strategies, there would be a very good chance of instilling the belief of wanting to learn in the students. For example, providing manipulatives and visual aids in the classroom is one way to have an effective learning environment and that reflects one of the instruction strategies that views students as active learners.

34. Learning Environment • Conclusion: • It is important to incorporate the effective use of instructional strategies into the classroom in order to have an effective learning environment. By then, hopefully the students would have experienced an effective learning environment. To sum it up, the goal of teachers is to have students to be exposed to an effective learning environment and that can be done by incorporating effective instructional strategies.

35. Instructional Resources • Introduction: • This is a section where it can be most beneficial for professionals in the educational field who browse through my professional portfolio. It can be a frustrating task for the teachers to spend hours browsing through the Internet in order to find excellent curricular resources and activities to use for their classrooms. This section provides links to different national organizations, national standards, and curricular resources on the Internet. Those presentations were developed by the students in the Deaf/HH teacher preparation at Kent State University. These presentations cover subject areas such as science, mathematics, and Deaf studies.

36. Instructional Resources Math • National Organizations • National Council Teachers of Mathematics, www.nctm.org/, Cathy Wilson and Adrienne Rossi • The Mathematical Association of America, www.maa.org/, Jennifer Fabian and Robyn Kwiatkowski • American Mathematical Society, http://e-math.ams.org/, Jennifer Fabian and Robyn Kwiatkowski • National Standards • NCTM Standards, http://nctm.org/standards/, Jennifer Fabian and Robyn Kwiatkowski • Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, http://standards.nctm.org/document/chapter5/index.htm, Carrie Majewski and Kim Williams • National Math Standards Grades K-4, http://www.education-world.com/standards/national/math/k_4.shtml, Jennifer Fabian and Robyn Kwiatkowski

37. Instructional Resources Math • Curricular Resources • LightSpan, http://lightspan.com/, Carrie Majewski and Kim Williams • Teacher/Pathfinder Educational Village, http://teacherpathfinder.org/, Carrie Majewski and Kim Williams • Math through Ages, www.coreknowledge.org/CKproto2/resrcs/lessons/498MathAges.htm, Jennifer Fabian and Robyn Kwiatkowski • Dr. Math, http://forum.swarthmore.edu/dr.math/drmath.elem.html, Jennifer Fabian and Robyn Kwiatkowski • The Math Forum, http://mathforum.com/, Cathy Wilson and Adrienne Rossi • The Global Schoolhouse, www.globalschoolhouse.com/, Cathy Wilson and Adrienne Rossi

38. Instructional Resources Science • National Organizations • National Science Teaching Association, www.nsta.org/, Crystal Wiece and Shannon Collins • American Association for the Advancement of Science, www.aaas.org/, Meg Coyne and Nancy Sutherland • The Eisenhower National Clearinghouse, www.enc.org/, Meg Coyne and Nancy Sutherland • National Standards • National Science Education Standards, www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses/html/index.html, Meg Coyne, Nancy Sutherland • National Science Standards, http://books.nap.edu/html/nses/html/index.html, Crystal Wiece and Shannon Collins • Project 2061:Science Literacy for a Changing Future, www.project2061.org//, Crystal Wiece and Shannon Collins

39. Instructional Resources Science • Curricular Resources • Education World, www.educationworld.com/science/, Meg Coyne and Nancy Sutherland • Science and Math Initiatives, www.learner.org/sami, Meg Coyne and Nancy Sutherland • Athena-earth and space science for teachers, www.athena.ivv.nasa.gov/, Meg Coyne and Nancy Sutherland • K-12 Science Education Resources, www.eskimo.com/~billb/edu.html#free, Crystal Wiece and Shannon Collins • SRA Science, www.sra4kids.com/teacher/science/index.html, Crystal Wiece and Shannon Collins • Science Made Simple, www.sciencemadesimple.com/, Crystal Wiece and Shannon Collins

40. Instructional Resources Deaf Studies • National Organizations • National Association of the Deaf, http://nad.policy.net, Ashley Ayers and Holly Maines • Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf/HH, www.agbell.org/, Ashley Ayers and Holly Maines • American Society for Deaf Children, www.deafchildren.org/, Ashley Ayers and Holly Maines • National Standards • National Association of the Deaf, http://nad.policy.net/proactive/newsroom/release.vtml?id=17960, Ashley Ayers and Holly Maines

41. Instructional Resources Deaf Studies • Curricular Resources • Hand Glass, www.handglass.com, Ashley Ayers and Holly Maines • Deaf Views, http://www.deafview.com, Ashley Ayers and Holly Maines • Deaf Today, http://www.deafspot.ds.net/, Ashley Ayers and Holly Maines • Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center, http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/, Ashley Ayers and Holly Maines • Residential Schools and Deaf Cultures, http://www.gallaudet.edu/~pcnmpper/nov-dec97/residential.html, Ashley Ayers and Holly Maines • Gallaudet University Library, http://library.gallaudet.edu/dr/, Ashley Ayers and Holly Maines

42. Instructional Resources • Conclusion: • The information provided in this section should serve as a tool for teachers to use in their classroom. The teachers can use this section in order to help them get started on teaching a specific topic if they are looking for instructional materials to use in their curriculum. Also, this section can be viewed as additional resources for the teachers because they may already have some resources in the first place. This is a section that can be beneficial for teachers because they can use the information and apply it to their classrooms.

43. Formal Assessment Protocols • Introduction: • Assessment occurs in every classroom. It is the teacher’s responsibility to continuously monitor students’ progress. Over the years, the school systems have relied on formal assessments to monitor students’ progress. The formal assessments include tests that are designed to compare individual students with national averages, or norms of expectancy (Overton, 2000). The tests are also standardized in order to obtain favorable results. Unfortunately, there have not been many standardized tests that include norms for the deaf students. Teachers need to remember how critical it is when it comes to choosing a specific kind of test to use with the deaf students. The next slide lists several tests that have been used with the Deaf/HH students. The teachers can benefit from the next slide if they are not sure about which tests to use with the Deaf/HH students.

44. Formal Assessment Protocols • Even though there are not many standardized tests that are designed for the Deaf/HH students, there are some standardized tests that have been commonly used for the Deaf/HH students. The formal assessment listed below have shown some kind of validity for the Deaf/HH Students (Gibbins, 1989). These standardized tests are: • The Hiskey-Nebraska Test of Learning Aptitude • The Pintner Language Test • The Stanford Achievement Test • The performance scale of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Revised (WISC-R).

45. Formal Assessment Protocols • All of the tests that were mentioned in the previous list do include norms for the Deaf/HH students. The WISC-R include norms for both hearing and Deaf/HH students. The Hiskey-Nebraska Test include information about standardization administration procedures for hearing and Deaf/HH students. The Pintner Language test also include norms for Deaf/HH students. The WISC-R tends to be the most popular one among the other tests to be used with Deaf/HH students (Gibbins, 1989).

46. Formal Assessment Protocols • Conclusion • Formal assessments have been repeatedly used over number of years for Deaf/HH students. It is difficult to find tests that include norms for Deaf/HH students. It is very important to use tests that do include the norms for Deaf/HH students when testing the Deaf/HH students. Deaf/HH students have not been properly tested over number of years because they have been tested using inappropriate testing materials that did not include norms for Deaf/HH students. Teachers need to remember how important to choose appropriate testing materials to ensure fair testing for the Deaf/HH students.

47. Informal Assessment Protocols • Introduction: • Informal assessment are non-standardized methods of evaluating progress such as interviews, observations, teacher-made tests, and more. Informal assessments are starting to be widely used by many teachers today. Informal assessments are an alternative way to monitor students’ progress rather than using formal measures. Teachers today are starting not to rely so much on formal measures because it may not be a true estimate of the student’s ability. There are several different ways to use informal assessments to monitor students’ progress. There is a list of different techniques that can be used with the students on the next slide.

48. Informal Assessment Protocols • Performance Assessment • This is an assessment where students are required to create a product to demonstrate knowledge. Student knowledge and ability are measured through actual performance through a product that they develop in response to a question (Overton, 2000). • Authentic Assessment • It is somewhat similar to the idea of performance assessment. But the questions or the problems are more realistic and are set in real-life context. An example of this kind of assessment is a publication of a classroom newspaper. This can be used in many different ways to assess students’ ability in many subject areas (Overton, 2000). • Curriculum-Based Assessment • This is an assessment where using the content from the currently used curriculum to assess students’ progress. Using a criterion referenced tests is the most common form of this tool (Overton, 2000).

49. Informal Assessment Protocols • Portfolio Assessment • This is a way to evaluate students’ progress, strengths, and weaknesses using a collection of different measurements and work samples. This is the kind of assessment that I would want to use with my students because I believe that the students will benefit greatly from this kind of assessment. Students may get the sense of ownership if they do have a say of what is being put in their portfolio. A portfolio would include a wide variety of students’ work samples that does not only focus on written tests. This is something that really focus on the process rather than the product. This reflects some of the ideas within my philosophy of education (Orlich, et.al., 2001).

50. Informal Assessment Protocols • This is a list of different ideas that teachers can use during an informal assessment (Overton, 2000): • Observations • Teachers can use anecdotal records in order to record things that are being seen and are worth recording the information on paper. • Interviews • Teachers are encouraged to interview the students to ask the students to evaluate their progress in the classroom. Also, the teachers can interview the students’ families to learn more about the students and their progresses.