An Experimental Study On The Application Of Group Portfolio Assessment In English Writing Teaching In Senior Middle School

Portfolio assessment is an objective and comprehensive evaluation on the basis of portfolio,which is an authentic description to reflect students' performance and progress.It's main purpose is to build up their self-confidence and improve their abilities in self-assessment and self-reflection by collecting the works or assignments as well as the comments and suggestions from teachers,peers and themselves.It can also reflect students' progress,achievements and existing problems in a certain aspect.Group portfolio assessment is based on group learning.Students' works are collected,evaluated and sorted under the guidance of the teacher,of which the purpose is to make students see their own growth and progress,to optimize the learning process and to guide students to correctly evaluate themselves through inter-group competition and internal cooperation between students.The overall English writing level of senior high school students in China is relatively weak,and the main reasons why students' writing ability is difficult to improve lie in teachers' teaching methods and evaluation methods.Though there are also teachers who establish a personal writing portfolio for students,most of the ordinary high schools in China are teaching in large classes,and the personal writing portfolio has added extra burden to teachers' work.It may not fully stimulate students' interest in writing.Therefore,this study is carried out using group portfolio assessment,trying to find out whether it can increase the students'interest in English writing,whether it can improve the student's writing ability and enhance their confidence in writing and whether group portfolio is more helpful than personal portfolio in English writing teaching.In this paper,the senior high school students from a certain high school were taken as the research object,and the form of questionnaire survey was carried out before the experiment to learn about the students' current situation of English writing,including interest,attitude,problems and confidence in writing.The experiment was divided into two stages.During the first stage,the teacher established personal writing portfolio for each student and carried out writing teaching in class,while the students evaluated their works by themselves and by the peers according to certain writing evaluation standards,which were handed in to be reviewed by the teacher.During the second stage,writing groups of six students were set up according to their writing performances.The group leaders elected by themselves were responsible for the design of portfolio and the collection and evaluation of works.In the course of the experiment,the teacher recorded and collected the data and information in three very important tests,which was followed by another questionnaire.During and after the experiment,several students were timely interviewed to find out how they felt about the implementation of the group portfolio so as to ensure the experiment was carried out smoothly and understand its impact on students' writing comprehensively.After the whole experiment,the results of the questionnaire surveys and interviews were analyzed,and the data collected were compared and analyzed,from which the experimental conclusions were drawn.First,group portfolio evaluation is helpful to enhance students' interest in English writing.The students completed and displayed group tasks together,making the relationship between students more integrated.They experienced the joy of writing and naturally their interest in English writing increased.Second,group portfolio assessment is helpful to improve students' English writing ability and enhance students' confidence in writing,which can be seen from the rising scores of their compositions and their decreasing sense of frustration.Finally,group portfolio is more helpful than personal portfolio in English writing teaching.The latter cost the teacher less time and energy.As a result,the teacher can be liberated from the daily management of portfolios and spare more time and energy to guide the students how to reflect and evaluate.In this paper,some findings and shortcomings of the experimental study are summarized and some suggestions about group portfolio writing teaching are put forward as well.Above all,teachers should apply group portfolio assessment according to the teaching content as well as the students' actual learning level and timely revision of the rules is necessary.Besides,teachers ought to constantly update their teaching ideas and improve their professional knowledge in order to be a good guide and supervisor in the new curriculum reform.More importantly,writing tasks should be carefully designed and arranged.Finally,it is suggested that group portfolio should be carried out in different teaching fields and different schools to improve the credibility and effectiveness of the experiment.