Personal Entries: How To Capture Home Learning Moments

Posted on March 19, 2020 by David Niguidula

With students spending lots (and lots!) of time at home, they are probably looking for things to do. Families are getting creative; kids are learning to cook or helping more with younger siblings or finally picking up the musical instrument.

So even if they are not in the classroom, students certainly are learning new things – and those things are probably connected to standards!

So how can they show what they’ve learned?

With Richer Picture, students can create a portfolio of “personal entries.” These is an easy way for students to document what they have learned on their own.

Adding a personal entry is as simple as adding a post on social media. (If you have a Richer Picture account, click on “My Work” and then “Add Entry.”) For each entry, the student can include:

Upload the Student Work  – In a personal entry, a student can upload something about what they’ve learned. Maybe it’s a photo of something they’ve made in the kitchen, or a description of a book they’ve read. It could be or a link to a virtual field trip they’ve taken, or a video describing how they have divided the chores in the house with their siblings. This “artifact” can be in any format – a piece of writing, a Google doc, a presentation, an image, audio or video.

Select Standards from a Checklist – Then, the student can link that entry to the school’s expectations. For any school, Richer Picture contains a list of what all students should know and be able to do; this can be the set of standards from the state or district, or it can be the school’s “portrait of a graduate.” In any case, the student can simply go down the list, and select the expectations that they have demonstrated.

Add a Brief Comment – Finally, students can add a little commentary. They can give a summary of what they’ve done, and provide a brief reflection on how the artifact is a good demonstration of the selected standards.

Link to Class – Students can connect an entry with any of their classes just by selecting the teacher from the drop-down list.

You can see an example in the image below:

Students can add entries at any time. At some point, you can ask the students to take their best learning and assemble a tour of their work, to show all the standards that they have met.

Learning can take place anytime, and anywhere – the Richer Picture portfolio can let your students show what they have accomplished, even when they are having fun!