captioncrit.html

Captioning Assignment.

Criteria For An Effective and Reflective Portfolio Caption.

What is a caption?	A caption is an explanation for a document or artifact of classroom practice that you've included in your TaskStream portfolio. It explains the document and establishes the meaning of the document to you, the collector. It informs the reader what the document is, how it came to be, why it is included in this particular entry of the portfolio, and why it is important to you to include in the portfolio. In short, a complete caption is a reflective statement by you that shows your ability to reflect on practice.	Comments
What does a caption look like?	The various parts of a caption can be included in the general description of your entry, specific descriptions of student work, and/or placed in the description of an attachment. A caption can be text layered on to an example of student work. A caption can be text that follows file attachments. A caption usually takes the form of several statements that are layered into an entry in a variety of ways. Just make sure the caption meets the four criteria.	Captions doesn't have to be lengthy. The essential point is that they proved a connection between the portfolio, the document, and your thinking. A good caption means the reader won't have to decide why the artifact is in the portfolio. A good caption explains how the artifact connects to the Entry of the portfolio and to your thinking as the creator of the portfolio.

Essential Criteria for an effective portfolio caption.	Essential Criteria Answer the question...	Example
Identification	What is the artifact ?	This is a picture of six active girls in a Complex Instruction learning activity making a chart on wind chill factors.
Origin	Where was it produced, how was it produced, by whom was it produced ?	They are working to calculate wind chill factors they learned about in Julie of the Wolves and our science class. We'd read this story during the theme unit on "Northern Regions."
Location	How does the artifact connect to, illustrate or illuminate the portfolio section in which it occurs ?	The picture shows terrific ownership and that's the subtheme of this portion of the portfolio. The children had to work out the wind chill information from a resource card and the group goal gave them a huge sense of group ownership of the task.
Meaning	Why is this artifact important to you? What does it mean? What does it show you know about the teaching and learning process ? [This is where you show your professional knowledge.]	The picture shows several important things to me. First, the group goal meant that all had to collaborate. Second, it shows I was able to integrate science and literature with this assignment. Third, it illustrates my delegation of authority as Cohen talks about in her work on Complex Instruction; and fourth, the photo makes it clear that girls can be important contributors to scientific work.