Saves time in grading process. Allows you to make the process consistent and fair.

Helps you explain to students what you expect. Shows you what to teach. Identifies essential relationship between discipline information and processes. Help students evaluate their own and each others work. Saves you from having to explain your criteria to students after they have handed in their work, as a way of justifying the grades they are contesting. Helps student peers give each other constructive feedback on plans and drafts. Helps team teachers or teaching assistants grade student papers consistently. Helps teachers of sequenced courses communicate with each other about standards and criteria. Form the basis for departmental or institutional assessment.

Portfolios are a kind of authentic assessment and because authentic assessments cannot be graded like traditional assessments, scoring rubrics is just one way to assess portfolios in order to increase the reliability of scores based on human judgment.

Scoring is not always as simple and straightforward as counting the number of words spelled correctly on a spelling test. In performance assessments, students generate their own responses. Performance assessments frequently result in a product that is created or constructed by the students. Evidence of learning is demonstrated through such products as posters, essays, projects, models, research papers, and portfolios. Another aspect of the performance assessment that may be assessed is performance itself, as well as the product created. Sometimes performance of something is the product. Performances are not limited to dance, physical education, art, and music, but can also include speeches, demonstrations, and class presentations in any subject area. Performance might also involve the actions of the student while preparing the product. In some situations, we observe how a student behaves when the student is "performing," but in other circumstances we observe learning-related behaviors in the classroom setting; e.g., time on task, participation in class discussions, oral presentation behaviors, or collaboration skills.. Whether we are assessing the product, performance, or both, one important guideline is that the assessment be done systematically so all students are assessed on the same basis. BOON Rubrics appeal to teachers and students for many reasons. First, they are powerful tools for both teaching and assessment. Rubrics can improve student performance, as well as monitor it, by making teachers' expectations clear and by showing students how to meet these expectations. The result is often marked improvements in the quality of student work and in learning. Thus, the most common argument for using rubrics is they help define "quality." One student actually didn't like rubrics for this very reason: "If you get something wrong," she said, "your teacher can prove you knew what you were supposed to do!" (Marcus 1995). A second reason that rubrics are useful is that they help students become more thoughtful judges of the quality of their own and others' work. When

rubrics are used to guide self- and peer assessment, students become increasingly able to spot and solve problems in their own and one another's work. Repeated practice with peer-assessment, and especially self-assessment, increases students' sense of responsibility for their own work and cuts down on the number of "Am I done yet?" questions. Third, rubrics reduce the amount of time teachers spend evaluating student work. Teachers tend to find that by the time a piece has been self- and peer-assessed according to a rubric; they have little left to say about it. When they do have something to say, they can often simply circle an item in the rubric, rather than struggling to explain the flaw or strength they have noticed and figuring out what to suggest in terms of improvements. Rubrics provide students with more informative feedback about their strengths and areas in need of improvement. Fourth, teachers appreciate rubrics because their "accordion" nature allows them to accommodate heterogeneous classes. The examples here have three or four gradations of quality, but there is no reason they can't be "stretched" to reflect the work of both gifted students and those with learning disabilities. Finally, rubrics are easy to use and to explain. Christine Hall, a fourth grade teacher, reflected on how both students and parents responded to her use of rubrics: Students were able to articulate what they had learned, and by the end of the year could be accurate with their evaluations. Parents were very excited about the use of rubrics. During parent conferences I used sample rubrics to explain to parents their purpose, and how they were used in class. The reaction of parents was very encouraging. They knew exactly what their child needed to do to be successful.

Yes I see the elements of the portfolio they are the; 1. Cover Letter About the author and What my portfolio shows about my progress as a learner (written at the end, but put at the beginning). The cover letter summarizes the evidence of a students learning and progress. 2. Table of Contents with numbered pages. 3. Entries - both core (items students have to include) and optional (items of students choice). The core elements will be required for each student and will provide a common base from which to make decisions on assessment. The optional items will allow the folder to represent the uniqueness of each student. Students can choose to include best pieces of work, but also a piece of work which gave trouble or one that was less successful, and give reasons why. 4. Dates on all entries, to facilitate proof of growth over time. 5. Drafts of aural/oral and written products and revised versions; i.e., first drafts and corrected/revised versions. 6. Reflections can appear at different stages in the learning process (for formative and/or summative purposes.) and can be written in the mother tongue at the lower levels or by students who find it difficult to express themselves in English. a. For each item - a brief rationale for choosing the item should be included. This can relate to students performance, to their feelings regarding their progress and/or themselves as learners. 4. Is it necessary for a teacher to use varied types of portfolio? Why?

Teachers understand and use varied assessments to inform instruction, evaluate and ensure student learning. Teachers are knowledgeable about assessment types, their purposes and the data they generate. 5. If one element or two elements of a portfolio are missing, will this have any impact on the assessment process? Explain your answer. It will affect the grading system of the portfolio. And it may lead to misunderstanding of the student for she will not get the grade that she deserves. My Reflection 1. Have portfolios made the learning assessment process inconvenient? Is the effort exerted on portfolio assessment commensurate to the improvement of learning? Instructional approaches on K-12 education have changed with the passage of time. Technological advancements have brought into play greater use of visual aids, hypermedia, and interactive simulations and lesser practice of the traditional chalkboard method. Additionally, curricular developments have been undertaken to address the ever increasing stack of educational information needed by students. These did not only redefine the teaching process during K-12 education but also affected the learning experience of students. Such curricular changes also brought about dynamism in the educational evaluation process. Electronically generated examinations, evidenced-based researches, learning portfolios, and the like have been utilized in addition to the conventional paper-and-pen examinations. The use of learning portfolios, as a new approach to the evaluation process has gauged students' performance and ability to process learned information. Portfolios are collection of documents, literature and other educational materials designed to assess specific student performance. These may cover the conception, drafting, and revision of works in progress; the best pieces of a student's creation; student's assessment of outputs; and parents' and/or instructors' evaluative comments on strengths and weaknesses. It is reflective of the daily learning experience of students and should be a continuous documentation to specifically scale student's status, progress and accomplishments.