Each year students should engage in a process of identifying entries from their working portfolios that they may want to include in their graduation portfolios. This annual identification of potential graduation portfolio entries can be incorporated into an ongoing process of student reflection on portfolio entries; thereby minimizing the need for students to remember in their senior year all the learning that occurred during their school career.

Students should start considering entries in their working portfolio for inclusion in their graduation portfolio early in their senior year using appropriate guidelines for their choices. If student reflection and monitoring processes have been adhered to, students should have an adequate variety of entries from which to choose.

Things to Consider

Guidelines for the number and types of entries should be given to students in their freshmen year and again in the beginning of their senior year so that they can make good choices. Students should be monitored during the selection process. Guidelines should be reviewed on a yearly basis with an advisory or an adult in the school community. Students should have many opportunities to discuss their portfolios with an adult through their high school career.