Throughout the year, we collect a plethora of school work and projects – what do we keep and what do we toss?
This post is designed to help parents put together a portfolio. These are simply organizational ideas. In the state of Florida, there are no requirements for a specific method of collecting documentation.
Florida law does, however, require parents to keep a log of educational activities and work samples for up to 2 years in case of district audit, but for portfolio annual evaluations, only a small selection is needed to display progress.
Activity Log Templates
Keeping records helps me as a teacher and evaluator plan scope and sequence as well as track progress. Here are some sample templates. The first example is my “Weekly Log” while the second is my “Reading Log.” These logs can be as detailed as you want to make them.
Work Sample Vaults
As stated above, Florida law requires home educators to keep work samples for 2 years in case of an audit conducted by the district home education office.
Each home educator will want to create a vault of work samples from which to pull. This can be kept in a simple bin or file drawer.
So, here’s my super fancy 2 year collection. This is where I throw all my children’s completed work. After each quarter, I purge anything I feel is superfluous (i.e. no wants to look through 95 math worksheets when the test alone will show the progress). I typically keep tests/assessments, pinnacle projects, writing assignments (all parts of the process), and any unique unit materials I may want to review in the future.
Creating a Digital Portfolio
While the law requires us to keep work samples, evaluators only need to see a small portion of those samples from different points in the year to determine progress. As an evaluator, I suggest 5-6 samples from each subject. The best way to organize, store, and share these samples is through a digital drive such as a Google Folder which is why I highly recommend created a Digital Portfolio.
The next slideshow demonstrates my daughter’s digital portfolio from 2020 using a Google Folder. I created PDF documents of her work using my iPhone or scanner, then uploaded them to Google file. The file can have individual folders for subjects. Note: the PDFs can also have several sheets behind the one displayed, i.e. what may look like a single document may have 10 samples. Again, this is not required, it is simply an organizational idea for an easy to review portfolio – both for your annual evaluation as well as in the rare case of audit. The last two slides show the completed Activity Logs.
Exceptional Student and Kindergarten Portfolios
Exceptional student and Kindergarten portfolios will look different than our traditional work sample portfolios. These students may be working on a variety of social, behavioral, motor, communication skills and goals which are not pencil/paper records nor categorized by traditional academic subjects. These skills may be in addition and/or in lieu of academic subjects. For this reason, the Activity Log is the most important feature and Portfolios may include pictures, videos, and parent reporting.
Kindergarten will also have similar skills goals and can use also this template. This is a sample method of record keeping for following progress. Again, this is not required, just an idea for how a home educator can monitor progress.
In each category, specific skills can be defined based on each unique learner’s developmental needs and goals.
Also, if your child is working with a therapist, many of these skills are being covered in his or her treatment. A copy of your child’s treatment plan and periodic evaluations can be used for his/her evaluation.
Other Resources
Please visit these other helpful resources regarding portfolios and Florida State homeschooling requirements:
Deborah Kline, EdS 
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