End-of-Year Portfolios

It's the time of year to finish each child's portfolio.  We have been collecting work all year so now it's a matter of choosing the pieces that each child wants to include in his final first grade portfolio to represent the year's work.  In writing we include a piece of narrative, a report and a persuasive piece.  These will go in the orange portfolio folder that is kept in the cum file.  It's interesting to look back at the kindergarten work and see how far the students have come.  Specific pieces are added at the end of each year and then at the end of fifth grade the portfolios are given back to the children.  Fifth grade teachers say that the children are fascinated with looking back at the work and often walk down Memory Lane, remembering writing some of the pieces.  Parents also seem to really appreciate the packet when it comes homes. 

Rubric with Response to Literature

As we begin to complete our written responses to Kevin Henkes' books to go in our portfolios around our Kevin Henkes Author Study, the children are given a rubric to help them decide when "good is good enough." We want them to be able to look at their own work and then look at the expectations for a response and begin to work on the revision process by themselves and during conferences with the teacher. We also want them to begin to internalize some of the editing techniques that we have taught. Revising and editing are not always easy for a first grader! Above is our Response Rubric and below Dazha's response to Kevin Henkes' Wemberly Worried with revision and editing comments in red. Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes

Have you ever been worried a lot? If you have, you will know how Wemberly Worried was feeling when she was worried.

This first page and the last page were actually added after the retelling was complete. As Dazha went back and compared her work to the rubric, she realized that she had not included an opening to hook her reader, a connection (which was optional) and a closing, so she added them as the last pieces of her response.In the beginning Wemberly Worried was worried about everything. She was unique because she worried a lot. She worried about big things, little things, and things in between. Wemberly worried in the morning. She worried at night. And she worried throughout the day. And she worried about her doll Petal.

The second sheet is actually the back of the first sheet which shows that Dazha used a technique for inserting information of putting a star on the front page where the insertion is to take place and then writing the information on the back of the page. In this case, Dasha wanted to get extra credit for using one of the vocabulary words, "unique," that we had been studying as part of this Kevin Henkes Author Study, so she added it during the revision process!In the middle she went to school and was worried but she made a friend that had a stuffed animal just like her. They played with each other.At the end Mrs. Peachum said, "Come back tomorrow!" Then Wemberly said, "Don't worry. I'll come back tomorrow." And when she got home Wemberly, her mom and dad danced around in a circle.

Remember when I told you that have you ever been worried a lot? Well I have. When my mom goes in the car washer I get scared, but things come our okay. If you have things that you were worried about they will come out okay.

When Dazha came to this writing conference she wanted to close her response with a connection which she had written, "When my mom..." but when she reread her closing she decided that she wanted it to connect back to the beginning so she added the first sentence on this page and then used the insertion editing mark to add in the middle of the last sentence.

Dazha has learned so much during this unit. She began with the retelling (which was easy for her) of a beginning with the characters, setting and problem and then moved to the middle with its events and then finally the ending which solves the problem. Then she used her rubric to identify the missing parts of her response and added an engaging beginning and a closing to wrap up the piece. She also showed that she had learned some techniques for inserting information by using a star and writing information to be added on the back of the paper and also by using the insertion editing mark to add right above the writing. She even thought about adding a connection which was optional and a vocabulary word for extra credit! Look out Dazha - I might be standing in line one day getting your autograph after you publish your first book!

Procedural Writing

Most of our first grade classrooms have recently completed a study of procedural writing, often called "how to" writing. Some teachers incorporate this genre into their nonfiction writing with reports and others treat it as a separate genre. The following is a good example of the writing we expect this time of year.

"Make a cupcake! For kids!"

Hey! Let your kids help with cupcakes! If you're worried, let them read this and you can help them! This will make them be able to know how to make cupcakes and to stay away from hot ovens! They will love it, making cupcakes with parents! Mixing icing! So fun!First you take flour, sugar, eggs, milk, a candle, a lighter and frosting and a bowl. And don't forget the spoon. Also the cupcake holder. (Notice the labeling in the picture!)

Next you take the ingredients and you take the bowl and spoon and mix it all together!

Next you take the mixture and pour it in the cupcake holder and put them into the oven.

And then you let a parent set the timer. Then you let it bake.

And then you let a parent take the cupcakes out of the oven and put them on the table.

Next with steady hands you squeeze and spread the icing however you want! You could also make designs!

Then you take the candle and put it where you want and let an adult light it!

And last you eat it!


There are lots of things to brag about in this first graders' directions for making cupcakes. You can tell, because of the change in paper, that the child added the introduction that orients the reader. The writer includes the ingredients and supplies that are needed and even remembers to label the ingredients in the first picture. She then writes clear steps for making the cupcakes and accompanies each next step with a clear picture. Transition words such as First, Next, And then, Then, And last are part of each step and she concludes the instructions with a closing statement, "And last, you eat it!" This is a delightful example of what you can expect to see in first grade portfolios this time of year!

Kindergarten Portfolios 2008

Teachers keep three different kinds of portfolios in kindergarten. They keep a works-in-process folder for each child. In Kindergarten this is a vinyl folder with clear pockets that includes an insert of pictures worked on as a family project to give the child a menu of things to write about that he cares about. It also includes the current work of each student.Teachers also keep cumulative folders that include ALL of the child's work. Some teachers keep these in a file drawer (above) and other teachers keep them in an open crate in the classroom. At specific times during each nine weeks, usually at the end of a writing unit, the teacher encourages each child to go through her folder and choose things to keep. The teacher then transfers the "keepers" into the cumulative file. In earlier years we kept every single piece of paper that a child wrote in Kindergarten, but now we clean out these folders on a regular basis, keeping several sample pieces that represent the student's writing for that period of time. The reason we went to this system is simple. Keeping every single piece of paper just meant bulky, messy folders so now we send home a few of the pieces and keep a few.
The final type of folder that teachers keep is the final portfolio. This is kept in an orange folder that is put in the cum folder at the end of the year for each student.

In writing we keep a single sample for each of the genres of writing: Narrative, Information/ Report, Functional/"How to" procedures, and Response-to-literature. In addition the final portfolio includes three pieces - one from the beginning, one from the middle and one from the end of the school year to document work over time. In reading we file an in-house assessment profile and a graph of the child's reading levels. In Math we simply keep the scores of the beginning, middle and end of year internal assessment scores.

Each grade level has an agreed upon list of items that go in the child's portfolio at the end of the year. This information informs next year's teacher and provides a history of the child as they move through the school. In the fifth grade the entire orange portfolio file is sent home and provides a keepsake for the child of their growth through their elementary years.