LinguaFolio Online, a portfolio assessment tool, allows students to collect evidence demonstrating their communicative abilities to themselves and others. Using LinguaFolio Online throughout a students’ language career guides them to reflect on their learning process and allows them to take responsibility for their own learning.

Getting Started

LinguaFolio Online works best in a curriculum when instructors first develop a classroom centered around goal setting and reflection. Consider what you would like students to complete at the end of each activity and each unit. The connection among curriculum, instruction, and assessment – including LinguaFolio Online formative assessment – offers the greatest benefit to the language learners.

Then, select Can-Do Statements in LinguaFolio Online that match your curriculum goals. These are the students that you will ask students to complete and upload evidence for at the end of each unit.

In order to get started with LinguaFolio Online, we suggest that you check out our Teacher Welcome Packet. In this packet, you will find some basic tech tutorials and documents to help you to plan you course including a unit planner designed to help educators to engage in effective backwards design with LinguaFolio Online. You will also find the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements (2015 NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements, 2017 NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements for Interpretive Communication, 2017 NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements for Interpersonal Communication, 2017 NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements for Presentational Communication, 2017 NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements for Intercultural Communication) and an additional document to help teachers to plan which Can-Do Statements to use as learning targets during a given unit of study.

Introducing LinguaFolio Online to Your Students

First, set aside time to teach students about the importance of setting goals and review how to build their portfolios in LinguaFolio Online. Setting long-term goals can help motivate students to continue learning a language and culture, while setting short-term goals helps students see their incremental progress.

Next, discuss the importance of identifying previous language learning experiences, which may include another language students use at home or with relatives or interactions with other cultures during family vacations. Help students brainstorm how to use those previous experiences to inform their study of your target language.

Finally, have students sign in to LinguaFolio Online. Review the interface so that they understand how to navigate the system. Ask students to add any previous language learning experiences they shared in their Interculturality Section. Have students share information about themselves in the Biography Section.

During Your Course

Determine what you want students to be able to do at the end of each class or activity. Each day, share the goal of the daily instruction. Help students set their own goals for what they would like to achieve related to the unit or lesson, and help them identify ways to measure their success. At the end of each day, ask students to reflect on their learning and assess how they are feeling about their language learning progress.

After Completing a Unit

After completing a unit, have students review the work they have completed and select the best examples to showcase their learning. These pieces will be the evidence that they upload to the Can-Do Statements in their LinguaFolio Online profile. Having students upload evidence at the end of each unit will reduce the number of times you need to schedule computer lab time, which can be difficult to secure for teachers in some schools.

Ask students to log in to their LinguaFolio Online portfolios. Direct them to the Can-Do Statements you have identified as matching your unit’s curricular goals. Have students upload the evidence to those statements. Remind students that they may wish to add a new interculturality encounter. Lastly, have students review the progress they have already made and celebrate the tasks they can do using the target language. Now that students have likely met a short-term goal, have students set new ones and perhaps revise their long-term goals as well.

A Little More About Evidence

Evidence is the student language performance that supports their ability to successfully complete the Can-Do Statements in LinguaFolio Online. Can-Do Statements are the heart of the portfolio system and show what students can actually do using the target language. Evidence provides the supporting documentation to showcase students’ ability to accomplish the Can-Do.

The following are samples of evidence that can be uploaded to students’ LinguaFolio Online profiles:

• Writing samples, such as typed paragraphs of an essay or an email
• Audio samples, such as a recording of students introducing themselves or talking about a recent family vacation
• Visual files, such as a video clip of students performing a skit during a final performance or a media presentation
• Digital photos, such as a graphic students created about a food dish typical in the culture they are studying or a picture of a poster they created