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Portfolio Project
 In order to receive a diploma from Coventry
High School, a student must complete an Electronic Student Portfolio. This page presents a description of the Portfolio:
- Introduction & Overview
- Required Components
- What the Portfolio Looks Like
- The Role of the Mentor
- Working with your Portfolio
- Portfolio Assessment
- Portfolio requirements by grade
Right-click here to download this manual as a single pdf file.
Introduction
Portfolios are a school-wide project required by the administration and staff at Coventry High School. It is a collection of your personal, academic and artistic efforts as well as your career development plans. Your efforts reflect your knowledge, skills and accomplishments in the various disciplines. This collection can be used to exhibit your achievements and special talents to an employer, college, or any training programs beyond high school.
You are responsible for putting together this collection. You determine how it looks, and what it says. With guidance from your instructors start now to develop a portfolio that reflects your best efforts. When you have completed this task, you will feel a sense of satisfaction and pride in yourself and the work you have accomplished.
In summary, your Coventry High School Portfolio will provide you with:
- a significant learning experience
- a chance to pursue individual interests
- an opportunity to express ideas and talents
- integrated learning
- accountability and responsibility
- a resume which supports your marketability to colleges or employers
In order for your Portfolio to be successful, you must complete all the required components outlined on the next pages, meet submission timelines, and provide your best effort. The following are Portfolio expectations you need to be aware of:
- all students will be required to complete a Portfolio
- all Portfolio Components must be completed by April of the twelfth grade year
- you may voluntarily submit additional materials such as SAT scores, awards or honors recognitions, or other such documents to your Mentor for inclusion in your Portfolio
- you will be required to redo any unsatisfactory or unacceptable work in order to have your portfolio approved for completion of the graduation requirement.
REMEMBER…the responsibility for knowing and completing the Portfolio requirements is YOURS!
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Required Portfolio Components
The Portfolio will be stored electronically on the school’s server. By the end of the third marking period of your senior year, your Portfolio must include a minimum of the following:
The first three categories will tend to reflect work assigned by your teachers as part of the normal workload of the courses you take. The next three categories offer you the opportunity to explore special areas of interest and develop advanced skills in the learning styles in which you have strengths.
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What the Portfolio Looks Like
As mentioned previously, your Portfolio will be stored electronically on the school’s server. You will maintain your Portfolio in your Student Access Folder. This folder may be accessed from any computer on the high school network, when you log on with your personalized username and password.
Your Student Access Folder has been designed to operate like an electronic “storage locker.” Here, you can save documents for any of your classes, whether they are completed assignments, works in progress or independent projects. As you can see in the screen shot below, sub-folders have been created for some of your subject areas. In addition, a sub-folder has been created called “My Portfolio.” In this sub-folder of your Student Access Folder, you are responsible for maintaining an accurate copy of your complete Student Portfolio.
Now, let’s take a look inside the “My Portfolio” subfolder.
As you can see, there are separate folders for each of the Portfolio categories, as follows:
- Writing Assignments (5 required)
- Assessments – tests, exams, etc. (7 required)
- Other Work (Chosen Field) (10 required)
- Laboratory Reports – science, math, etc. (3 required)
- Academic Projects – research papers, PowerPoint presentations, etc. (2 required)
- Creative Projects – art, music, drama, designs, creative writing (2 required)
In this way, your Portfolio can easily be viewed (by you and your Mentor) to monitor your progress towards completing the required elements.
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The Role of the Mentor
Your homeroom teacher will act as your Mentor on all Portfolio related issues for all four years of your high school career. Your Mentor will meet with you periodically to assess the status of your Portfolio. Students may schedule meeting times with their Mentors during block day homeroom periods or any other mutually arranged times.
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Working with your Portfolio
As mentioned in the previous sections, your Portfolio will be maintained in the “My Portfolio” subfolder
of your Student Access Folder. This section will outline the procedures you must follow in order to maintain your Portfolio safely and securely.
You will select items for your portfolio that you believe demonstrate your best skills in, or knowledge of, a particular subject area. Items selected for your portfolio should already have been assessed by a teacher, and your classroom teachers will regularly discuss the standards expected of Portfolio submissions from within their subject areas. At times, your classroom teachers may determine a particular assignment, project, report or assessment as a Mandatory Portfolio selection.
Once a particular item has been selected for your Portfolio, a simple twostep process must be followed in order to insure that the item is saved to the correct location.
- Categorize Determine which category the item belongs to – Writing Assignment, Assessment, Other Work, Lab Report, Academic Project, or Creative Project
- Save (or copy) the document into the appropriate subfolder in your “My Portfolio” folder. (Writing Assignment, Assessment, Other Work, Lab Report, Academic Project, or Creative Project)
Once a document has been stored in your permanent Portfolio, it may not be removed from the Portfolio unless:
- it is being replaced by a document of the same type, or
- you already have exceeded the minimum requirement for that type of project/assignment
All such replacements or removals, must take place during a meeting with your Mentor.
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Assessment
Final assessment of the portfolio will take place during a student's Senior year by the designated Senior year guidance counselor.
Each marking period, students will receive a Portfolio Progress Report (see sample). This form will be included with any other subject area progress reports and mailed home to parents. The purpose of this form is to provide feedback to students and parents about the progress being made towards completion of the Student Portfolio.
For your conenience the chart below summarizes the portfolio requirements by grade and semester.
Portfolio Requirements by Semester
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Examples of Portfolio Documents
Documents in MS Word format, such as:
- Summer Reading Essays
- Literary Analysis Essays
- Personal Essays
- Persuasive Essays
- …and many other options
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Scanned or MS Word, with Grades/Comments
- Chapter Tests
- Mid-term or Final Exams
- Performance Evaluations
- Alternate Forms of Assessments
- …and many other options
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Scanned or MS Word, with Grades/Comments
- Science Lab Reports
- Mathematics Lab Reports
- …and many other options
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Long-term Academic Projects are an integral part of most classes. These projects can include traditional assignments like research papers and PowerPoint presentations. At the same time, we want you to explore non-traditional options like those listed below. Consult with your teachers about any of these assignments as alternatives to the traditional projects assigned during the year, or as independent projects. Better yet – make up your own project!
- original research on the life and philosophy of a famous author
- create a PowerPoint demonstration for a school subject
- bridge building project
- create and demonstrate a historical model
- build a piece of furniture
- disassemble and rebuild a gasoline engine
- create a robotics model
- create a video or ethnographic study
- research and design a project on utopian societies
- develop a tour of a foreign country in the language of that country
- develop a math or computer project
- design a foreign language software package
- plan preschool activities for a daycare center
- organize and oversee a health fair
- write a computer program for a class
- design a newsletter or pamphlet using Desktop Publishing
- design a playground
- create an environmental improvement project
- refurbish a historical site…and many other options
- periodic element project
- original science research on a topic or concept related to biology, chemistry, or medicine
- rain forest research project
- research and re-create an historical battlefield
- complete a statistical project, original survey, videotape or photograph historical architecture of an area
…and many other options. Let your imagination be your guide!
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The staff and administration of Coventry High School believes that all students possess unique gifts and talents that need to be identified, valued, nurtured, and rewarded. It is through the creation of original art that students can best accomplish these goals. And creative arts projects need not be limited to work done in an art, music or theatre class. The projects included on the list below can be for any of your classes! Again, consult with your teacher to suggest one of the below as an alternative assignment or independent project.
- choreograph and perform an original dance
- write and perform an original piece of music
- exhibit original oil paintings
- write or direct a play
- present a dramatic interpretation
- create a clothing or craft portfolio
- visually interpret a major literary work
- write a collection of poetry or short stories
- create aesthetic projects, murals, landscaping
- design and build a woodworking project
- design and build a scale model of a house (or other structure)
- write and direct a film or video
- create a Flash-based web animation
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Other Work (Chosen Field)
This, it is hoped, will be the most meaningful part of your portfolio. At the start of your sophomore year, you will select a “Chosen Field of Study.” This Chosen Field should reflect your strongest area of interest. (You may change your Chosen Field at any time.) The Chosen Field may be one of your academic subjects, such as English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Foreign Language, Business, Consumer Ed, Tech Ed, Physical Education, Art, Music or Drama. OR, you may select a career choice or specialized field of education for your Chosen Field, such as Archaeology, Computer Programming, Criminal Law, Sports Medicine, Small Engine Repair, Religion, Veterinarian Science, or Web Design! In this way, you get to decide the most important part of your high school education – much like a college student gets to choose a major. (During your freshman year you should collect extra assignments from each of your academic subjects.)
NOTE: these are just some of the possibilities for projects for your portfolio. The list should not be construed as all-inclusive. You should work through your teachers and Mentor to tailor projects that are right for you.
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