If you have to keep a portfolio, do you keep anything relating to music lessons (which I count in my elective hours)? I'm not sure if I should keep a couple of pages out of their lesson books or do a recording or take a picture or just not bother at all. lol. We don't have our portfolios reviewed, ever, by anyone, so I can't "ask an expert" at any point.
My dd had drawn a picture while listening to Mozart, so I brought that in. Mostly, though, I just told the cert. teacher what we had done, and admitted we hadn't covered as much as I would have liked. She was happy as long as we had done something.
So far I have kept little when it comes to music. I do keep her fliers from her choir musicals and write in her daily practices and lessons in the planner. She does three musicals a year for choir. I also keep record of special music she plays; when she plays for the church or seniors. I also keep any test her piano teacher gives her. But the records aren't fancy. Next school year she will be in 9th so I am going to start keeping a more in depth portfolio along with transcripts. Since she is going to start taking flute lessons soon, I plan on asking her piano teacher to start giving her grades for paino and flute. While I can do it for her, I would like to have a letter or note from her actual music teacher who can vouche for her lessons and performances. I will keep the notes in the portfolio along with the transcripts. Since she is going to be 14 in December, her piano teacher, who will also be her flute teacher, told me Ems could start playing with the beginner college students and do some of the volunteer musicals. She will get a transcript from the college for this. I will keep this in her portfolio as well.
I would make an audio or video recording and burn it to a cd or DVD. Then keep that in he portfolio, and/or with a picture of your child rehearsing. that should be enough that if anyone were to NEED to review your portfolio, you can show it. I don't really put much in the portfolio for electives, but my state doesn't have any curriculum requirements. If the school board ever wanted to see our portfolio, they'd only really be interested in Math, language arts, science, and social studies.
We put in programs from our kids' two recitals each year, and I generally copy a page of music from each recital. This year, they wrote their own pieces for the fall recitals, so I'll be including that as well. Sometimes a photo. I keep a recording for my own records, of their recitals, but an overview is IMO good enough for a PA portfolio.
We have to turn in our portfolios to the school district each year. When the kids were younger, I just included a list of what they did for music. I usually include a program if the kids did a recital or their choir sang in church. For the older kids, I also include pieces of music they worked on. For my highschoolers I have the music teacher write an evaluation and give them a letter grade for their transcripts.
