Artifact Portfolios: Reports of Progress

Currently our teaching team is in the midst of one of the most reflective, collaborative, and important processes we undertake throughout the year: we are writing our learners’ “Artifact Portfolios.” We don’t give grades. We don’t issue a simple report card every six weeks. We don’t simply provide parents with general comments on their child’s progress. Instead, twice a year our teaching team works together to craft a lengthy narrative report on each child, which is captured in a portfolio-style layout that is positioned around “artifacts” of the child’s work. Artifacts are captured throughout the semester and take the form of photos, screenshots, excerpts of writing, short videos, and transcripts and most of the time are captured through the regular, every day work cycle, and not necessarily just through more high-stakes assessments or on-demand activities.

Remaining true to our learner-centered identity, the goal of the Artifact Portfolio is to report on the hard work of learning….

generalLisa ZapalacNovember 30, 2020Long-View Micro Schoolartifact portfolios, collaboration, analysis, learning, report cards, narrative reports

Why We Don’t Give Grades (How Assessment Works at Long-View)

“Oh, we don’t give grades.”

It’s a remark that continues to raise eyebrows among parents and even educators. And understandably so: letter-grades are so entrenched in American schools as the measure of achievement that a school without them can seem lax or even negligent, as though it has no interest in assessing its learners’ progress.

But at Long-View, nothing could be further from the truth….

GeneralLisa ZapalacJanuary 31, 2019Long-View Micro Schoolgrades, assessment, artifacts, 4C's, narratives, report cards, parent conferences