Creating a Portfolio - Great Activity for the Summer

Preparing for the first day of school is more than buying new shoes and school supplies.   Most likely, your child’s teacher only gets the Individual Education Plan(IEP) which may only share a part of who your child is.  Create a photo story to share some positive qualities about your child to ease the teacher’s first day worries.

It’s fun to take some time and not think about school during the summer.  Yet it is also a great time to get prepared for that first day of school.  One way to start the year off right is to create a portfolio for your child’s teacher.  A portfolio should give some information about your child’s gifts, likes, and interests. 

A portfolio does not have to be a fancy scrap book.  Get a simple photo book with about 10-15 photo pages and some index cards.  Pick out approximately 30 pictures of your child doing things at home or in the community.  Include photos of friends, pets, family members or other favorite places or things.  Those pictures should be current and share a positive message about your child.  Lay the pictures out on a table.  Let your child select which pictures they want to share in the photo book.  If your child writes – they can write a sentence or two about who is in the picture (or what they are doing) on an index card (i.e., “My cat’s name is Princess.”).   If your child cannot write – they can dictate to you.  You can also write a simple sentence about the picture (i.e., “Bill loves to go to out to eat after church.”). 

By sharing some of your child’s loves, it will help the teacher to get to know your child as a person and to see beyond their disability label.   To learn more about portfolios, go to Texas Project First’s page on student portfolios.