Sunday, March 23, 2014

Student Portfolios - Transition Special Education

I have been thinking about putting together portfolios for all my kids since I transferred to this job 5 years ago.  Every now and then I will mess with it and add a page or two, but have never been in a big hurry to get it done.  Starting next school year, my boss wants every student in our program to have a portfolio. We have many reasons for wanting the portfolios.  One is so we can bring it to the students IEP so the parents can see what the students have been working on.  It will also follow them through our program if they were to get a new teacher. When they complete our program at the end of 4 years, the portfolio will go home with the students to use as a resource and hopefully shown to their new adult day placement. It's taken me a couple weeks but I think we are finally complete!  Here's what it will include:  

Page 1 - Cover Sheet (you can see it there above)
Page 2 - Personal info sheet (this includes all student and parent info. Is the student conserved? Medical info and diagnosis.
Page 3 & 4 - Parent/Guardian assessment (what does the student do at home? with friends? with the family?  What areas do you want them working on?  What does their future look like to you?
Page 7 - Current IEP cover (I will show them all below)



Page 8 will show what each of the students goals are, what we will be doing at school regarding the goal and what the parents will be working on at home.  It will also be used to mark off whether the goal is met each quarter.  Page 9 will list what the parents transition goals are for their child each of the four years they are with us.  Each year the new goals will be listed.  Employment goal, educational goal, and independent living goal.  This page will stay in all four years. All these questions are also on our new IEP's.
Page 10 - Student Transcripts
Page 11 - Community Awareness.  This sheet has a list of all of the community based outings students need to attend (pharmacy, DMV, airport, Laundromat etc).  There is also a box to write the date that the students attended.
Page 12 - Resources.  We will add to this over the years.
Page 13 - Here I have added a 39 cent plastic 3 ring business card holder.  I had these in my portfolios years ago and the kids loved adding cards to them.  They need to include and resources the student may need (regional center, Dr., Dentist, independent living center, pharmacy the use etc).
Page 14 - Certificates of Achievement (perfect attendance, Student of the month, most improved, citizenship etc).
Page 15 - Job Training Log.  This will keep track of the job sites and dates that the student worked there.
Page 16 is where the students will write their own evaluation of a job site they have completed.  We change job sites every quarter so their will be multiple of these pages inside their portfolios.  This page has room for a picture of the student working, their job duties, what they liked and didn't like about the job.
Page 17 is a job site evaluation form.  This will be completed most likely by the aide who accompanied the student each day to their job site.  It will only take a couple minutes to complete this form each quarter.  
Page 18 & 19 is a sample job application the students can fill out to use as a reference if they were to need to fill out a real one for a job.
Page 20 - Resume insert
Page 21 - Letters of recommendation insert
Page 22 - A worksheet to write down any references they may have.  Name, address, phone number and relationship.
Page 23 - Yearly assessments insert


After the insert is the area where you can put any assessments you have done with the kids.  I add my "I can" pages - not included (you can find those on my blog). ***** NEWLY ADDED are the 4 assessments I do with all my kids (language arts, math, personal info and time/calendar).  The portfolio also included two vocational interest assessments you can see on your left, and one page where the students can choose the type of environment they want to work in.

Pages 24 - 27 are insert pages to sort the classwork you want to keep in the portfolio to show during an IEP (social,vocational, independent living and functional academics.  Here is a picture of all the inserts that are included. We will be including in ours 3 clear plastic 3 ring insert pages that hold pictures.  We figure the students are more apt to hold onto the portfolio after graduation if it contains pictures of them.  I am selling this in PowerPoint so that you can make any changes you need. I think it would be great for high schools too, it may just need a little adapting. You can also add your school logo to all of the insert pages.  To see a preview of each page, check it out on TPT.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Student-Portfolio-Special-Education-1173108

5 comments:

  1. Did you make up all the sheets yourself or did you find them??? I love this and would love to start this with my kids (18-22 life skills class)

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  2. These sheets are mine. 6 years ago when I was working for another program all of my students had portfolios. The program I am working for now is having each teacher start them this upcoming school year. I have had to adapt some of the pages to fit the level of my students now, but it is pretty much the same. They are so nice to be able to take to an IEP and the kids love adding things to them.

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  3. Our district has a transition folder similar to yours, not as detailed, i like yours better. The other teachers and I in our department have talked about adding a DVD of different videos of the students performing certain tasks/jobs. :)

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  5. Excellent article! Your insights are truly remarkable. Early childhood special education adopts a deliberate approach to integrated learning, making this knowledge invaluable to students. If you're learn more about special education teacher jobs for additional information.

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