Part 1: Theoretical Perspective

While teachers form literacy goals, make assessments for students’, keep track of students’

growth, and reflect, it is extremely beneficial for students to be self-reflective too. We know that literacy

assessments should have an equity mindset, visibility, embedded in authentic learning experiences, and

multimodal. (Elish-Piper et al. (2023) The ePortfolio does this as it promotes equitable teaching and

ownership of learning. So, when ePortfolios are combined with literacy assessments, they are extremely

effective. It is important to recognize that ePortfolios are more than just a storage or collection of course

work, they are a space where students create, collect, curate, and connect. Parkes, Dredger, and Hicks

(2013) stated, “what is often lost in the rush to use digital technologies to foster and assess student

learning is an understanding that an ePortfolio is not simply a storage site, database, electronic

scrapbook, or simplistic archival collection of students’ accumulated course work.” (p.101) The

ePortfolio is a measure of reflective practice and has become “an important tool and instructional

scaffold providing our students with the opportunity to craft and present an evidence-based,

professional account of their emerging knowledge, skills, and dispositions.” (Parkes, Dredger & Hicks,

2013, p. 99) The ePortfolio is a process and a product and the use of ePortfolios can support our

students in literacy across disciplines and deepen student learning as they engage in reflection and

metacognitive thinking. Reflection, which promotes metacognition, is embedded in ePortfolio pedagogy

as it provides intentional opportunities for students to look and think about their learning, beyond

traditional portfolios and paper. Another component of ePortfolios is its ability to help develop digital

literacy. Digital literacy goes beyond learning and using digital tools and is increasingly important in

today’s technological world. Digital literacy helps to develop critical thinking and promotes cross

curricular learning. While ePortfolios are equitable and a measure of reflective practice, a teacher must

plan how they will support student’s reflection and metacognition.

I know that ePortfolios allow a way to assess, including formative and summative. However, because

they are individualized, they are more subjective, which I think may compromise assessment reliability.

On the other hand, they are also authentic and assess what a student can do. This can allow a student to

be more autonomous and reflective. Therefore, they need to be used in conjunction with assessments

and students need consistent and meaningful feedback from the teacher. Overall, ePortfolios are used in

teaching, learning, and assessment. I believe that ePortfolios are extremely purposeful in teaching as

Watson et al. (2016) stated that:

“ePortfolio and folio thinking provide scaffolding to guide learners in capturing their

experiences. Further, these practices prepare learnings for life in the 21 st century by allowing

them to develop integrative learning and build habits of mind that are central to lifelong

learning.” (p.67)

The collection of artifacts from ePortfolios makes teaching, learning, and assessments authentic and

allows the “potential to make unique linkages, connections, and reflections among multiple experiences

and artifacts in ways that would not otherwise be possible with a traditional paper portfolio.” (Parkes,

Dredger, and Hicks, 2013, p.101)

I believe that ePortfolios allow students to engage in multimodality as students are supposed to

be able to create, collect, and engage in reflection. Students may use images, graphic organizers,

videos, audio recordings, and text/writing. These features allow students to express their

understandings beyond traditional print.

Part 2: Literature Review

I had two original literacy goals (1 reading and 1 writing). For my first literacy goal, students will

exhibit comprehension of a text by retelling a story using key details with 80% accuracy. They will be

assessed using AMIRA. Amira is an Early Literacy Assessment that assesses vocabulary, ORF, Phonemic
Awareness, Spelling/Encoding, Decoding, Alphabetic Knowledge, RAN, Reading and Listening

Comprehension. According to Scarborough’s Reading Rope (2001) comprehension (skilled reading) is the

product of language comprehension and word recognition. AMIRA measures comprehension using five

measures: reading comprehension, listening comprehension, vocabulary, spelling, and oral reading

fluency. Amira is a digital assessment that I believe lends itself to an ePortfolio as it can show a student’s

data in all components it tests and shows growth.

In my second literacy goal: students will exhibit their comprehension by completing a story map.

A story map is a graphic organizer where students must write the characters, setting, problem, and

solution using a mentor text. While retelling a story allows students to practice important

comprehension skills, such as: key details, text structure, inferencing, main idea, theme, and etcetera,

research has shown that using writing can enhance reading comprehension. Writing allows students to

make connections and facilitates new understandings. “Thinksheets, graphic organizers, and other

procedural facilitators have been shown in previous research to be effective tools for guiding the writing

processes of struggling students.” (Collins et al., 2017, p.314) In addition, the integration of reading and

writing results in reading comprehension growth. As students complete story maps weekly, their work

can be used for an ePortfolio, as the use of ePortfolio and the practice of metacognition will help

students with writing and reading comprehension growth. While students in my first-grade classroom

work on narrative, opinion, and informational writing, this story element graphic organizer is a part of

the writing process as it can serve in a piece of the writing process. Typically, a teacher will use a mentor

text followed by the writing process: brainstorming, planning, drafting, editing, and revising. This graphic

organizer can be used in the brainstorming and planning portion of the writing process. Additionally, the

self-reflection from using the graphic organizer in the ePortfolio will serve as a formative assessment as

students may identify strengths and areas to work on for their comprehension and writing.
 I am adding an additional two goals. My first goal goes along with reading: students will fluently

read grade-level text to support comprehension. My second goal goes along with writing: students will

produce narrative, informational, and opinion writing pieces using Georgia Standards. Students will use

formative assessments, such as WCPM and NSGRAS for the fluency goal in addition to AMIRA. For the

writing goal, there will be many formative assessments throughout the writing process: brainstorming,

planning, drafting, editing/revising, and publishing. I believe all elements of the writing workshop are

formative assessments. Students will complete graphic organizers, draft on writing paper, edit with red

pens, and finally publish.

Overall, there are many formative assessments available for reading and writing in the

classroom that support student’s understanding and independence.

Part 3: Data Review:

With my first literacy goal: students will exhibit comprehension of a text by retelling a story

using key details with 80% accuracy, students will be assessed using AMIRA. While AMIRA breaks down

all components of reading: vocabulary, ORF, Phonemic Awareness, Spelling/Encoding, Decoding,

Alphabetic Knowledge, RAN, and Reading and Listening Comprehension, students’ goal is to score 80%

accuracy on comprehension by retelling a story. To assess reading comprehension, AMIRA ask the

student to respond to questions after reading a text passage. To assess listening comprehension, AMIRA

ask students to respond to questions after listening to a passage being read out loud. Overall, AMIRA

uses assesses comprehension using a combination of direct and indirect measures to provided multiple

measurement points. Once assessed, teachers receive benchmark and screening data, including reading

mastery (ARM score), fluency (ORF), and Dyslexia Risk (DRI). Since Amira is designed around SVRF and

Scarborough’s Reading Rope, AMIRA shows subdomain scores using each Reading Rope thread and

these scores can be compared to national norms. Because AMIRA does this, it makes it simpler for how I
will use the data to guide my literacy practices. I can explicitly see the subdomain scores to then choose

instructional practices to support students. In addition, AMIRA allows you to select a student and hear

their reading. Therefore, I can include student work samples using pictures of scores and recordings.

In my second literacy goal: students will exhibit their comprehension by completing a story map.

Students will use a graphic organizer (character, setting, problem, solution) to meet this goal. Students

must correctly identify these story elements to meet their literacy learning goal. Because the integration

of reading and writing helps support students in comprehension, this data will help to guide their

comprehension and writing. Students may show growth in using key details and text evidence with their

graphic organizers. Student’s graphic organizers will serve as the work sample.

Part 4: Multimodal Connections

While there are a variety of platforms to use for ePortfolios in the primary classroom, I am going

to use Seesaw. Some schools in my district used Seesaw before our county created their own platform,

CTLS (Cobb Teaching and Learning System). Seesaw has resources, lessons, digital portfolios, and

communication features. Student and teacher will upload and create their artifacts using Seesaw. The

reason I chose this platform is because it is simple and user-friendly, which is essential considering the

primary space. In addition, Seesaw allows you (teacher) and students to provide feedback and engage in

communication which is essential in self-reflection. Each literacy goal will have a different folder that

allows for space to submit and create artifacts and use a rubric. Seesaw has many multimodal tools

which allows for students to show what they know. Students can record videos, create images, submit

videos and audio recordings, type responses, comments, and more. In addition, students can also

upload work by taking and uploading images, videos, and audio recordings. Teachers and classmates

also can respond and provide feedback to each other which promotes collaboration and serves as self-

reflection and metacognition.

 The first literacy goal targets 80% accuracy on comprehension. The goal is: students will exhibit

comprehension of a text by retelling a story using key details with 80% accuracy. While I planned for

students to be assessed only on comprehension using AMIRA, it does break down all components of

reading using the Reading Rope; therefore, I am going to add another goal that targets fluency. The goal

will be: students will fluently read grade-level texts to support comprehension. Students will be assessed

using AMIRA, however, students may also show fluency using other formative assessments, such as

using Fountas and Pinnell (NSGRAS), and recordings on their own text choice using Seesaw. This

assessment incorporates multimodality as they can video and audio record.

The third literacy goal targets comprehension using writing. Students will complete a story map

graphic organizer to retell a story using key details. Writing about reading helps to support

comprehension and will help me assess their comprehension in a consistent way. Students will upload

or create their graphic organizer in Seesaw. This is a goal that will be assessed weekly as a mentor text is

read and students complete this graphic organizer afterwards.

The fourth literacy goal will target student writing. The goal will be: students will produce

narrative, informational, and opinion writing pieces using Georgia Standards. For narrative pieces,

students must recount two or more appropriate sequenced events, including some details in regarding

what is happening, using temporal words, and provide a sense of closure. For opinion pieces, students

must introduce the topic or the name of the book, state an opinion, supply a reason, and provide some

sense of closure. For informational pieces, students must name a topic, supply some facts, and provide a

sense of closure. Students’ work will be uploaded and assessed using Seesaw. At the beginning and end

of each writing unit, students will upload their work. I will assess using our County Report Card Rubric

which follows the standard. Teachers and students can reflect on their growth from the beginning and

end writing piece. Students can additionally create multimodal artifacts in addition to their writing, such
as drawings, recordings, and pictures. In addition, other formative assessments may take place, such as

assessing capitalization and punctuation.

The use of ePortfolios gives opportunities and allows our students to show what they know in a

multimodal way. Students will be able to create and upload their work, engage in feedback and

communication, and self-reflect. All of my literacy goals (1) students will exhibit comprehension of a text

by retelling a story using key details with 80% accuracy, (2) students will fluently read grade-level texts

to support comprehension, (3) students will complete a story map graphic organizer to retell a story

using key details, and (4) students will produce narrative, informational, and opinion writing pieces using

Georgia Standards will use multimodal components of my ePortfolio platform: Seesaw.

 References

Collins, J. L., Lee, J., Fox, J. D., & Madigan, T. P. (2017). Bringing Together Reading

and Writing: An Experimental Study of Writing Intensive Reading

Comprehension in Low-Performing Urban Elementary Schools. Reading Research

Quarterly, 52(3), 311–332.

Conference on College Composition and Communication. (2022, April). Writing

Assessment: A Position Statement. Conference on College Composition and

Communication. https://cccc.ncte.org/cccc/resources/positions/writingassessment?

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TcwODI4MzAxNC4zLjAuMTcwODI4MzAxNC42MC4wLjA.

Duke, N.K., Ward, A.E., & Pearson, P.D. (2021). The Science of Reading Comprehension

Instruction. Read Teach, 74(6), 663–672. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1993

Elish-Piper, L., Matthews, M.W., Risko, V.J. (2023, August 30). Rethinking

Reading Assessments. International Literacy Association.

https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-now/2023/08/30/rethinking-reading-

assessment-to-promote-equitable-

Graham, S., and Hebert, M. A. (2010). Writing to read: Evidence for how writing can improve

reading. A Carnegie Corporation Time to Act Report. Washington, DC: Alliance for

Excellent Education.
Parkes, K., Dredger, K., & Hicks, D. (2013). Editorial: ePortfolios – The Eleventh High Impact

Practice [Review of Editorial: ePortfolios – The Eleventh High Impact

Practice]. International Journal of EPortfolio, 3(2), 99–115. http://www.theijep.com

Watson, C. E., Kuh, G. D., Rhodes, T., Light, T. P., & Chen, H. L. (2016). Editorial: ePortfolios

– The Eleventh High Impact Practice [Review of Editorial: ePortfolios – The Eleventh

High Impact Practice]. International Journal of EPortfolio, 6(2), 65–69.

http://www.theijep.com