Portfolio of the pupil of the primary school: joint work and an incentive to develop

If your child has already gone to school, you are probably already faced with the need to create a so-called portfolio. Often it begins to form already from kindergarten. What is it? This is a document, designed in the form of files in a folder on the rings, telling about the student, his interests, achievements, creativity. Portfolio allows the teacher and the school to collect the most complete information about students and learn them not only as they see in the class. For parents, this is a chance to become a little closer to an adult and help him in the process of knowing himself and setting and achieving goals. And for the student himself - the opportunity to express himself and visually track his own progress.

First, formulate for yourself which sections and subsections will contain the portfolio of the primary school student. As a rule, there are strongly recommended by the class teacher. If there are no such recommendations, here is an indicative list of what it is desirable to include in the portfolio:

-The title page with basic personal information and contact information of the school

- Section 1. Everything that is related to the personality of the student, his school, his family. With the child, think about what he would like to tell about himself; Discuss what you can write about family members, find out what the child knows about his grandmothers, great-grandmothers. Find photos of relatives; Find the general photo of the class. Perhaps you will learn something new about the relationships within the class. On the first sheet, dedicated to the child, you can specify, for example, its growth and trace how it grew; Wrap a palm or just pick up photos of different periods.

- Section 2. Data on academic performance. Check with the class teacher, in what form it is better to arrange them. Here, the characteristics of the teachers, as well as the results of the tests (like medical data, they can be provided only with your consent!) Can be cited.

- Section 3. Creative, sports and other achievements, it does not matter whether they are related to the school. The student's portfolio should focus not only on its current results. For older children on a special page next to the column on current skills, you can provide a graph of "what I want to learn." Together, discuss what your child wants to achieve. Increase reading speed to ...? Learn to play guitar? Swim in the pool to the end of the path? Help the child set real goals, put them in the portfolio and work together on them. Then the portfolio can fully realize its motivating function.

So, you have roughly decided on the content of your portfolio of the primary school student. Equally important is his form, the "face" of the student. It is clear that the younger your student, the more parents contribute to the creation of his presentation. If you want to win in this creative competition of parents, you will have to try. How to make a student's portfolio? There are two main ways: save time and take advantage of the ready-made portfolio of an elementary school student or completely make it yourself. For self-manufacturing you will need knowledge of the basics of using graphic editors (or the desire to master them, simultaneously acquiring a useful spritz), or a set of stationery and half-forgotten skills in the design of photo albums and school wall newspapers. The latter option is laborious, but has many goals: you can attract all the family members together, having spent many interesting evenings together.

The finished portfolio of the elementary school pupil contains beautifully decorated sheets with standard headings, you just have to upload a few photos and enter the required data. Lack of such a path: a small degree of involvement of the child and the risk of being the third student with the exact same folder. In some cases, the ready-made form will still be necessary if the school insists on uniformity and use, for example, of school symbols. In any case, it is worthwhile to allow the child to make some pages himself, for example, pasting stickers with your favorite characters, and to help you with the choice of your own creative works. Whatever the formal requirements, there should always be freedom of expression and, most importantly, your shared with the child work aimed at strengthening your relationship and helping him to manage more tomorrow than today.