Authentic Assessment ESL: Writing Folders

Question: What are the advantages of writing folders?

Answer/Quote: “Writing folders or portfolios include samples of students’ written work collected over time….. Teachers should encourage students to keep their drafts, revisions and final copies in the folders as well as works in progress…. The folder can contain formal as well as informal pieces.”

Quote: “Even very young children can produce writing that, although unsophisticated, demonstrates their emerging literacy…as well as write their own stories by using invented spelling. Dating work and sorting it in a portfolio allows teachers to keep a running record of children’s progress.” P. 199.

Quote: “Bilingual students should be free to use both languages to plan and revise text and be encouraged to keep various versions of a text in their folders, although monolingual English-speaking teachers may want to see a final product in English.” P. 200.

Quote: “If students do a lot of writing and teachers do not want to review it all, they can ask students to select what they consider to be their best work. Students can then give teachers the final product as well as the various drafts that went into its preparation. Teachers need to see how students progressed throughout the writing process if they are to further students’ writing development.” P. 200.

Title: “Assessing the Literacy Development of Second-Language Students: A Focus on Authentic Assessment.” Georgia Earnest Garcia, pp. 180-205.  In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.