The literature cited above, as well as an influential cooperating teacher during my student teaching assignment, convinced me to keep a portfolio for each student when I received my first teaching placement. Since then, I have sought to improve my students' portfolios by including a wider variety of information sources. The most recent addition has been a writing workshop notebook. At the beginning of the year, I provide each student with a loose leaf binder complete with paper, blank graphic organizers, examples of various types of writing, a skills checklist, a holistic scoring rubric, etc. This enables me to track each students' development, and helps each student to focus on areas where improvement is needed.
Integrated units can help teachers utilize instructional time effectively.
Recent reforms in education have resulted in greater demands on instructional time. Calls for higher academic achievement, better standardized test scores, additions to existing curricula, etc. My most successful experiences with integration have involved combining mathematics and writing instruction. For example, students may be asked to give a written explanation for solving a particular problem, and then share their strategy with the rest of the class. Another lesson may involve writing word problems using multiplication, division, fractions, etc.