Seventh graders in Megan Wolven’s math class at Meridian Middle School are tracking their learning by creating digital portfolios using Google Slides and Sheets on their school-issued Chromebooks.
The math teachers at Meridian Middle School met as a team and selected learning targets and success criteria from each math unit that are essential for student understanding. The math curriculum, Desmos, aligns to state standards and is used by all math teachers at Meridian Middle School.
In the seventh grade, students are given the overarching unit learning targets based upon the state’s grade level learning standard and the success criteria, which are the smaller individual skills a student needs to master in order to achieve the entire learning target.
As students master each skill through their lessons in Desmos and in-class activities, they can check off that success criteria on their tracking sheet and then provide evidence of their learning in their digital portfolio. They also input their scores for tests and quizzes related to the success criteria into their progress-tracking Google Sheet so they will later be able to graph their progress.
“I wanted students to be able to take some ownership of their learning and reflect on it,” Wolven said. “They learn so much during a unit and now they will be able to look back on it.”
On Fridays, Wolven sets aside time for a check of understanding. This time is used to see if students are mastering the success criteria outlined for the unit. Once students check off that they have mastered a skill, they are asked to provide evidence of their learning. They can share the evidence of their learning in a few different ways.
Students can use evidence logs, annotated notes, a photo or visual representation of their learning, or a template for what they used to think and what they now know. Students complete each success criteria’s reflection as a page in Google Slides, so by the end of the unit they will have a complete presentation of their unit learning to share with their families and look back to in future learning.
Since the digital portfolios are saved in the students’ Google Classroom, the information is online, backed up and will not be lost.
“Having all of this information saved on their Chromebook, they are able to share their progress and everything they have learned with their parents,” Wolven said. “I am hoping they will look at it and be proud of the work they’ve done.”