Portfolio Review....

Recently the Brown Room friends have begun the task of reviewing and sorting their work in preparation for the upcoming Portfolio Conferences. (the week of May 20th).  Each child's process is unique and the conferences will be too.  Some children focus on sorting, others try to identify or give an interpretation what they made, some evaluate their pieces. Here are some examples from recent portfolio review sessions:

As Gigi sorted her work she evaluated complexity. When looking at some collages she noted, "It's not so fancy because it doesn't have many beads." She found a different collage and said, "It's fancier than the other one" (it had more beads glued on it).  Finally she noted proudly, "I did all of these at school! I've made a lot!"

While reviewing and sorting her pieces Lane kept the people she loves most in mind. She had categories for different media, but also categories for ones she specifically wanted to give to certain family members. Looking at one piece she reflected, "This is beautiful. It's for my mom."

When Emilia first looked at her spatula drawing, she thought it was a blank, black paper. Once she realized she had drawn with black marker on a black paper she evaluated her choice, "This one's not very good because it's black on black." 

When sorting, Emilia noted subtle differences and opted to create different categories: one for "paintings" (as seen in the left group) and one for "painting and drawing" (the group on the right).

Cannon was thrilled to see his work again. The first piece he reached for was an airplane he made out of clay (first picture) which he proudly showed to Jill and then flew upside down.  The large variety of work was notable for Cannon: clay, painting, drawing, sewing and collage. There was also tremendous pride in reviewing his work.

There was also some top secret work for Mother's Day... (censored for secrecy!)