E-Portfolio Guide

Students enrolled in EDU 200/EDUGL 470:

To start, you need to create a document on LiveText.

1. After you logged in LiveText,
2. Click on the "Documents" tab on top of your homepage. It will take you to the page where you can create a new document.
3. Click on the "New" button on the top left side of the page.
4. Click on the drop-down menu "Folder." Select "Portfolios- Graduate" or "Portfolios- Undergraduate" according to the program that you attend at SXU.
5. Click on the drop-down menu "template." Select the program that you attend. (Example, Secondary Education: History/Social Science).
6. Choose a title for your Portfolio. Some people prefer to use their names, some just title by the program E-Portfolio, keeping in mind that the name will appear next to the title anyway.
7. Click "Save as a new document". This will create a document that will reside in your Documents tab from now on.

The E-Portfolio should be utilized for multiple purposes:

• As storage of your completed assignments,
• As a folio to present your progress toward meeting Illinois Professional Teaching Standards (IPTS),
• To document your readiness for student teaching, and to illustrate your skills with technology and your professional accomplishments when you seek employment.

Please remember to collect artifacts that represent your best accomplishments throughout the program of study.

Students who prepare their portfolios for symposium:

You created an E-Portfolio when you were enrolled in the Profession of Teaching course. Now you need to locate this document on LiveText, review and edit materials that you included at earlier stages of your teacher preparation, and prepare the portfolio for the symposium.

Introduction Section. This section should include your brief bio, SOE conceptual framework reflection, and the disposition reflection (assignments completed during EDU200/EDU300/EDUG470).

To work with your pages (write, edit, and revise) you need to remember to click on the Edit button on the corner of each section. Your introduction page should be completed during the Profession of Teaching course (EDU200/EDU300/EDUG470).

Each portfolio section represents one of the nine Illinois Professional Teaching Standards (IL-PTS) in the table of Content of your Portfolio.

You may click on any of the sections (standards) to find out a list of courses that may correspond with the standard(s). You may want to consider what assignment from which course(s) t you should include to evidence meeting this standard. You may include an artifact that is not from the list of recommended course, but you are convinced this artifact will illustrate your competency in the area of standard(s). After you include an artifact, you will write a reflection explaining what artifact you include, why you selected this artifact, and how the included artifact illustrates that your competency in the area of the standard(s).

Your last step is to go to the "Standards Checklist" and check off the standard(s) you just worked on (providing an artifact and reflection). Reflection is an essential piece in your portfolio.

Please proofread your writing and make sure you expressed your rationale on the inclusion of specific artifacts.The standards checklist is a summary of your progress on the E-Portfolio. Please remember to check off standards that you met. Please Note: If you currently have no artifacts that would demonstrate your meeting a standard, but you are in a class in which you will complete an assignment that is a potential artifact for the standard, you need to write a brief statement in the reflection section explaining that you are currently enrolled in the course and working toward becoming competent in this area.

Standard 1 relates to the Content Knowledge. Meeting this standard means that you know the content of a designated discipline (if you are a secondary education major), or well-aware of broad subjects (Math, English, Science, Social Sciences, etc – if you are an early childhood or elementary education major). To evidence your expertise, you need to include multiple documents for each area, write reflective statements on how these documents indicate your expertise, and then check off standards that you met with your artifacts and reflective statements. This part of the E-Portfolio needs special attention and long-term consideration. Be prepared to allocate an appropriate timeframe for your work on this standard. Please note: you do not have to put a check in each box, you just have to make sure that each standard is covered within the chart and that you put as many artifacts as you believe that show you are competent in those standards. Make sure you have at least one artifact for each area of competency in the discipline that you will be certified to teach.

One document (artifact) usually addresses more than one standard. Therefore, you may include the same lesson plan or project presentation more than once in your E-Portfolio. Every time you include this lesson plan to evidence meeting a different standard, you have to write a different reflection (rationale) explaining how this lesson plan relates to the standard of your reference. Please note: You can use artifacts not only from the classes that are suggested for the standard. Often students have artifacts dealing with some of the standards, but they are not from the classes that are suggested by the template. It is essential to explain what artifact you include, why you include this specific piece to show your competency in the area indicated by the standard, and what exactly the artifact demonstrates about your knowledge, skills, and dispositions as described by the standard. Use your voice and say "I" to convince reviewers of your competency.

After you completed each standards page, you may click on the "Standards Checklist" page on the bottom of your portfolio table of contents and put checkmarks ('x") indicating where you have met a particular standard(s). To work with the Standards Checklist: Click on the "Edit" button. Now you will be able to insert "Xs" into the table. You should consider only white cells of the table as they indicate standard requirements that must be met by your program. Please ignore dark cells of the table.

The Standards Checklist does not require you to indicate what artifact you included, but the standards you met. By the time you finish your program, you should have at least one checkmark in each row and at least one checkmark in each column, considering only white cells and ignoring dark cells of the standards checklist table. For the symposium you need to have this table up to date with artifacts from your current coursework.

Your final touch is to personalize your e-portfolio. On your top left, you may find the "Edit properties" button. After you click, you will be prompted to choose a layout and select a style. You may also want to click on the button to review styles. After you choose color scheme and layout for your portfolio, remember to click "save and finish."

You should collect artifacts for your portfolio from each course. The more you collect, the better your chances are to show a variety of assignments that indicate your rigorous education.

If you have any questions, contact your advisor, your course instructor, or Jorge Arevalo, the LiveText administrator at Saint Xavier.