The Ministry of Education constantly pleases teachers, students and parents with various innovations. One of the last was the need to compile a portfolio of primary school students. Most parents came across this task for the first time. Therefore, teachers were immediately bombarded with many questions. And really, what is a portfolio, what should it consist of, and why even make it? These are just the main "misunderstandings" relating to an unknown topic. Let's try to deal with the problem in the current article.
What?
Most people, having heard the word "portfolio", immediately imagine the work of art workers. Indeed, in most cases, it is precisely artists, photographers, and models who bring it as a characteristic of the professionalism of their work. But what can a schoolboy bring? It's one thing when he really has something to brag about. For example, a child from early childhood does gymnastics, learns foreign languages or likes to solve complex mathematical problems. And if the student is a funny child and the joy of his parents. Should he really feel worthless by providing an empty portfolio?
Perhaps someday our ministers will come up with this. But while there is no single standard for designing a portfolio of an elementary school student, you can come to work creatively. And put in the portfolio any information that characterizes the child. We will tell you more about sample content later.
Why is it necessary?
Some schools, faced with an unknown task, chose to order ready-made portfolios for the entire class or even the school. After distributing them to students and parents, so that they fill out the required fields on their own. However, in reality, such a trick is incorrect. Although it greatly facilitates the work. But since the goal of the portfolio is to help the child to know himself better, to reveal his creative abilities, to conduct self-analysis of his life and learn to present himself in a winning light, which can be useful to him in adulthood when applying for a job, you cannot fit different children to the same standards. And accordingly, it is very important to complete the task yourself. Psychologists are also convinced that such actions will help the child evaluate himself, increase his self-esteem and, most likely, motivate him to achieve new goals. In addition, it will help students to get to know each other better, find common interests, build friendships on them.
Another important nuance that should be noted also concerns the portfolio templates of a primary school student. They should also be avoided because this work helps children and parents get closer. After all, a child may forget about some of his achievements or not consider them as such. Parents will help to understand the situation, not to lead, but simply to tell what is worth focusing on.
What is needed for compilation?
We have already mentioned that a single standard for the design of the work under study does not yet exist. However, traditionally , the portfolio samples of a primary school student are a clerical folder. Its dimensions are determined individually. Depending on the amount of information that the student wants to share or can boast. For the beauty of design, it is necessary to prepare files and A4 paper. Everything else varies. After all, you can decorate a portfolio to your own taste. Someone may need colored pencils or felt-tip pens, others will be limited to a printer, still others will “fold” their life out of colored paper or sculpt out of plasticine.
Therefore, before starting work, it is necessary to discuss with the child exactly how he presents his portfolio of a primary school student.
Sample content
To date, indicative sections have already been established, which must be in the portfolio. If desired, they can be supplemented or diversified with various information. But the content and order still need to withstand the following:
- The title page is the “face” of the student.
- Contents - a list of all sections of the work.
- "My world" - personal data.
- “My school” is school life.
- “My successes” are achievements.
- “My teachers about me” - reviews and wishes of teachers, which they will write after the presentation of the portfolio.
This is required information about the student. If desired, you can talk about what the child can do, what he dreams about, and plans. You can also imagine his daily routine, a story on the topic “How I Spent the Summer,” a reading technique, and final grades — a report card.
The child’s most important task, when performing a portfolio of an elementary school student, is to talk about his life with the help of graphic means of expressing information. Therefore, together with parents, you should select photos, pictures, drawings, etc. that are suitable for the section. Text should be as small as possible! It is important. Otherwise, the work may not be counted. And it will be completely uninteresting to perform it.
Title page
Since the task is creative, it is not necessary to draw up the title page as required by essays, reports, and even less so term papers and diplomas. Therefore, you can safely take a ready-made template of the “face” of work, or you can come up with and make your own with your child. The main thing is to indicate the following data on it.
- Heading. In this case, you should write: "Portfolio of a primary school student of the 1st grade of school No._". Or an older class. The word portfolio should be the largest on the page.
- Surname, name and patronymic of the child. It is necessary to write in the genitive case (whom?). For example: Antipov Anton Georgievich.
These are required columns. Additionally, you can specify the date and place of birth, the duration of writing the work, using the items "started" and "finished", F. I. O. class teacher. It is also acceptable to place a photograph of a student on the title page. An example of designing a portfolio of a primary school student (title page) see below.
Cover sheet example
Recall once again that the work under study is creative. Therefore, evaluating a child by comparing him with others is strictly prohibited. This applies not only to teachers, but also to parents. However, it is important to convey the importance of the credibility of self-esteem. So that the child can correctly and truthfully evaluate his personality without overstating or underestimating his dignity.
In addition, it should explain how important the appearance of the portfolio is. Of course, this must be done before the start of the assignment. Then a ready-made portfolio for an elementary school student is not required. And the child, together with his parents, will be able to independently invent and draw, print on a computer, present the title page as an application. For example, you can use the idea presented in one of the photos posted above.
"My world"
In this section, you should indicate all the information important to the student. For example, you can be guided by the following plan.
- Date and place of birth, age, home address and telephone.
- The meaning and origin of the name, the famous namesake, why the child was named that way. Maybe it was grandfather's idea?
- A short story with photos about family members. If desired, you can compose and add a family tree.
- Where does the schoolchild live, when and by whom was the city founded, what attractions are there and the like. Some guys add a way from home to school, highlight dangerous places.
- Friends list with photos, common interests, interesting memories.
- What the child is interested in, what he likes to do, what circles he attends and so on.
As we mentioned earlier, the work under study is creative. Therefore, performing a portfolio of a primary school student by a template is highly discouraged. The child must tell about himself independently. It’s not difficult to do this. And to do this task is wrong impossible.
Sample partition structure
This part can be designed in different ways. Some divide information into paragraphs. For example, in this way:
- Date of birth: May 2, 2010;
- place of birth: city of St. Petersburg;
- age: 8 years;
- home address: Rybatskoye metro, Slepushkina lane, house No., apartment No.;
- phone: 8 - *** - ***;
- the name Victoria means "victory";
- famous namesakes: Victoria Beckham, Victoria Pierre-Marie, Victoria - the British Queen since 1837;
- the name was suggested by the grandmother, because she really likes the song "Happy Birthday, Vika" of the "Roots" group.
Another example of a primary school student’s portfolio involves presenting this information in the form of a story. You can also compose it in poetic form.
"My school"
In this section, you need to paint in school life. For example, specify:
- photo, address and telephone number of the school, director’s name, year of commencement of studies;
- class number and letter; add a cool photo;
- name and photo of the class teacher and additional teachers;
- list and importance of school subjects;
- how the child participates in school life;
- school experiences - a short story with photos of any event that attended the class.
"My successes"
For many children, this section of the portfolio of a primary school student is difficult. How to arrange it, of course. But what to write, many do not know. Therefore, it is important for parents to help the child, if necessary, to direct him. You can be guided by the following plan.
- Learning Achievements. Where you can place the best works, independent and other works performed "excellently".
- Creative success. Where add elements, crafts, drawings and more. If the work is voluminous, it can be photographed.
- My praise. Feel free to copy or paste the originals of letters, diplomas, letters of thanks, and more.
- What am I proud of. This part is still empty. After presenting the portfolio, the student must select his best works to present them in the next similar work.
"My teachers are about me"
This section does not need to be decorated too much. Ideally, you just lined the sheet. After all, it is here that teachers write their comments, reviews, parting words and wishes. However, you should not be afraid. They will not praise or abuse the content of the portfolio of the elementary school pupil (_). They will only appreciate how hard and thoroughly the work was done. Of course, if the task was done in a blunder, most of the information was copied from the Internet, there are no photos, you should not configure the child to receive laudatory reviews.
How large should the portfolio be?
Many children and even some parents tend to “cram” a ton of information into the prepared folder. And all because they are convinced that the child must certainly appear in the best light. However, the size of the work does not show this at all. Indeed, in this case, quality is much more important than quantity. In addition, the portfolio is the “face” of the student. It should include really good work, important events, commemorative events, and more. It is not necessary to describe all the tenants of the apartment building who are the neighbors of the child. It is also worth considering that a student is given five minutes to present information. Because there are many children in the class, and everyone should speak. So that the child does not get confused and does not get confused in the heavy and voluminous "work", parents need to help minimize it, leaving only the most important points.
Samples and portfolio templates of a primary school student are different in volume. And this also proves that there is no standard size of work. Nevertheless, each family should objectively approach the task. After all, another goal of the assignment is to teach the child to highlight the main thing.
We hope that parents and students will understand that the work being studied is serious, but creative and interesting. Therefore, it is not necessary to be frightened, as well as you should not thoughtlessly seek out information on the Internet.