POSSIBILITIES FOR REFLEXIVE LEARNING, AUTONOMOUS LEARNING AND

SELF-DEVELOPMENT OF THE YOUNG STUDENT

AS A READER THROUGH THE INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY OF PORTFOLIO

Teodora Vlaseva
Plovdiv University „Paisii Hiledarski“, Bulgaria
teovlaseva@gmail.com

Abstract

The aim of this study was to provide reasons and design a portfolio model, applicable in the early
literary education in forming the student as an autonomous reader. The reasons and the possible
parameters of the model will be developed by means of analysis of the educational philosophy, the
functions and components of the portfolio. We will pay special attention to the European Language
Portfolio as a normative approved prototype of the student portfolio with approbated and accredited
options in dozens of countries. Interpretation and adaptation in compliance with the current needs
and the specifics of literary education of the strategical type will determine the profile and the
possible applications of the reflexive reader’s portfolio.

Keywords: primary literary education, autonomous reader, portfolio technology, reflexive reader’s portfolio

The innovation of primary education in reading and literature has been marked with difficult
transformation from the traditional subject-centered educational model to the person-centered one.
The crises were premised by both the way the normative documents interpreted and translated the
philosophy of change and the technology deficit in its realization in practice. The presumption in
the theoretical model of the modern primary literary education is that the reader is being formed by
mastering a system of competences which ensure the transition from reading under a teacher’s
guidance to autonomy–initiative and independence, reading under the control of the students
themselves. However, the program does not regulate the bases of forming the reader’s activity and
reader’s independence, does not set as a premise the integration of competences into strategies for
autonomous reader’s behavior, does not create conditions for the student to build an individual
projection of themselves as a reader, even the very concept of a reader is missing. And even though
it is planned to form basic skills of perception, comprehension, interpretation and sharing what was
read, the educational technology remains centered on the literary text and negatively motivated with
what the naïve realistic student does not know, can’t and does not understand in literature. The
student reader plays the role of an object of influence from the teacher to correct and balance of the
reader’s perception which is implicitly considered as incomplete and in conflict with the author’s
ideas. The individual student is not in the education process, the reading teacher replaces the
reading student.
The actual reorientation of the literary education towards the student demands a transition from
stimulus-reactive to interactive reading and studying, overcoming the text-centeredness and forming
reading and studying active competences, i.e. forming the reader as an active person, autonomous
individual and active participant in the literary communication. In this context is visible the
necessity for a positive concept for development of the child as a reader through literary education
and for the technology which will realize it. This explains our interest to the Portfolio technology,
which proved to be a powerful tool for reflexive education, based on self-assessment of the student
and their involvement in the education process.
The aim of this study was to provide reasons and design a portfolio model, applicable in the early
literary education in forming the student as an autonomous reader. The reasons and the possible
parameters of the model will be developed by means of analysis of the educational philosophy, the
functions and components of the portfolio. We will pay special attention to the European Language
Portfolio as a normative approved prototype of the student portfolio with approbated and accredited
options in dozens of countries. Interpretation and adaptation in compliance with the current needs
and the specifics of literary education of the strategical type will determine the profile and the
possible applications of the reflexive reader’s portfolio.
The portfolio is a modern technology, which places the student and their development in the center
of learning and creates an environment for autodidactic learning and formative (self-)assessment. Its
potential to realize the educational philosophy of constructivism and humanistic psychology in the
teaching practice gives reasons to refer it to the group of person-oriented technologies, which alter
the face of modern education. With its appearance on the stage, it creates an alternative to
normative evaluation with tests, which does not satisfy the requirements of the competence
approach.
In its quality of a “specific information technology“ the portfolio requires collecting, arranging,
presenting information about oneself into a collection of artefacts, which reveal both the level of
self-knowledge (the real I), and the desires, drives, efforts of one to create certain notions in the
others about oneself. In practice it means to build a certain personality model (the perfect I) and get
closer to it, its characteristics and behavior. Thus the technology reflects phenomena, inaccessible
for study through standardized tests, provides the opportunity of a holistic and authentic evaluation,
creating an overall picture of personal development and supporting environment.
When the portfolio is being developed by the student, it is educational, it collects and organizes
products, which document and demonstrate educational achievements. According to the purpose it
pursues, the educational portfolio can be oriented towards assessment of achievement or progress in
the studied subject area. The procedural portfolio, which follows the changes which occur over a
longer or shorter period of time, creates opportunities for transition to formative assessment, and it,
in turn, for reflexive learning. Through self-observation, self-analysis and self-assessment of results
achieved in time, the student is able to establish what they can or can’t do with their knowledge, to
analyze their difficulties and to be aware of their priorities in study, and consequently –to plan goals
and take action, to assess their performance and reflect on the procedures used.
Mastering the above described range of metacognitive strategies paves the way to autonomous
development. And through integration of assessment and learning, the Portfolio technology creates
an environment to support it. In order to study the contexts, which support reflexive learning, we
will analyze the representative working model of reflexive portfolio, offered by the European
Language Portfolio.
Created by initiative of the Council of Europe to promote the development of multilingualism in a
multicultural environment, the language portfolio stimulates active language learning throughout
life, and by applying the Common European Framework levels of language competence introduces
uniform standards for their evaluation, which facilitate the educational and professional mobility. In
an understandable, comparable and transparent way the portfolio informs about the learning
experience of the individual in learning the languages and the achievements connected with using
the language as a means of communicative activities (reading and writing, speaking and listening,
dialogue and monologue speech). However, more important than the information function is the
pedagogical function of the portfolio, whose main purpose is to make the learning experience clear
for the student by giving a central place to reflection and self-assessment.
This orientation motivated by the educational philosophy of constructivism addressed by the
portfolio is the principal goal of the language education for different age groups of students. In the
introduction of the guidelines how to work with the portfolio in the primary stage of education, for
example, is highlighted that beside a personal and authoring tool of the student as evidence of their
educational path, efforts, success, personal experience and realizations, the portfolio also has the
pedagogical function to help the student participate consciously and actively in their own learning
and to value everything which contributes to its enrichment and diversification. The focus on
autonomous, motivated and enriching learning is also seen in the user guidelines in the children’s
language portfolios, naturally, adapted in compliance with the age specifics in the cognitive and
affective student development. The guidelines-“letters” to the young learner, make it easy to
understand what, how and why the student could do with the help of the portfolio and its three
components, namely: to register and follow their progress in language learning and to record how
they learn languages (Language Biography); to store work samples of performed language
assignments (Language Dossier); to demonstrate which languages they are familiar with, and what
they know and can do with the language (Language Passport). Each of the appointed components
provides contexts and activities to activate autonomous learning. By creating their language
passport, the students realize their language and cultural identity; “writing” their language
biography helps them to set goals in the field of learning, to describe and assess by clear criteria and
levels their language knowledge and intercultural experience, to reflect while regularly assessing
their progress; to analyze and share the success documented in the dossier, which develops the
motivation and confidence in the person’s own learning abilities. The expected results from the
work with portfolio are for the student to accept their responsibility as a subject, to develop
strategies for planning, observation and assessment of their own learning, to make this more and
more motivated and efficient.
If we follow the philosophy and adapt the design (functions, components, subcomponents and
procedures of assessment and learning) of the complex language portfolio for development of
thematic portfolio of the student as a reader, we can expect three functional components in the
structure of the reader portfolio:
 Reader’s Passport, which presents in short the reader’s personality of the student and
captures the current profile of reading through general overview, assessment and self-
assessment of experience and competence in reading with the support of established
standards, with levels of proficiency and tables with descriptors;
 Reader’s Biography, is the reflexive framework in which to register, control and design
reader’s and academic achievements, and the student can track their progress in reading and
learning, reflect on their history and future as a reader. The development of the reader’s
personality by engaging in their own learning, self-observation and self-analysis, current and
regular self-assessment of the achievements by control-assessment sheets and planning of
goals and priorities, will detail the levels of reading competence.
 Reader’s Collection (Dossier) with evidence confirming the levels of reading competence
stated in the Passport and Biography. The composition and structure of this collection will
reflect the development of reading experience, and its selection and organization will
stimulate the reflection on experience.
A necessary next step in developing the portfolio is a further specification of its contents and
procedural characteristics according to the specifics of reading as a subject of assessment, learning
and teaching in the system of literary learning. Considering the fact that we are discussing the
application of the portfolio not for learning foreign languages, but in the early literary education in
the mother tongue, we consider it appropriate to conform the scale and descriptors for assessment
used in the portfolio to the model of the national evaluation in Bulgarian language and literature,
adopted in 2013. It follows the assessment design of the international reading literacy study PIRLS,
where the golden standard in literacy is defined by mastering certain reading skills: focus on and
retrieve explicitly stated information; make straightforward inferences; interpret and integrate
ideasand information;examine and evaluate content, language, and textual elements. There the
application defines the levels of reading comprehension. The achievements in comprehension are
assessed on a four-level scale, respectively as low, intermediate, high and advanced, with each level
being qualitatively determined. Covering the first level, for example, requires that the student can
extract information, which is communicated in a clear way and is easily located. Covering the
advanced level, requires that the students can students perceive the full text, while understanding
the different units of the text and their interrelationships; to rely on the text to justify their own
interpretations of the author's position.... The extent which covers a level is determined with
descriptors, which describe what the students should learn to do in order to understand the text at
the respective level. The high level of understanding of the literary text as meaning the student may
decide the following tasks: to find and understand the main details hidden in different parts of the
text; to build inferences to explain the connections between the events in the text feelings between
intentions and actions of the characters and justify their conclusions with the help of the text;
connect and interpret events in history, actions and character traits of the characters described in
various parts of the text; to assess the significance of events in history and the actions of the
characters to understand notified in text.
Including the scale and assignments as part of the reader’s portfolio, of course, imposes their
simplification so that they become accessible self-assessment tools. Using them in technology based
on formative assessment, however, requires opportunities for integration of assessment and learning
with the purpose of improving the reading skills. For that reason, we plan a fourth structural
element in the portfolio, which will provide the student with suitable resources for that purpose.
Through the component Reader’s Card Index the reader will be able to expand their range of
action strategies in order to enhance their chances for successful reading comprehension.
The image of the autonomous reader, that the student tries to follow in their own activity, is
reflected in the connections and interaction between the four components of the reader’s portfolio:
through the Passport the student studies the semantical-motivational and cognitive foundations of
their reading activity, through the Biography – the reflexive and result-evaluative; in the Card Index
– masters the procedural, and in work with the Collection–their self-organization as a reader. For
the development of reading competences every component has a specific contribution, standing out
in the constituent sections of various activity resources. For that reason we present the component
profiles through them.
A. Through the component of Reader’s Passport the student certifies their reading identity and
describes their reading reality. The portrait presents a snapshot of the reader by obtaining basic
information about their current interests, knowledge, skills and attitudes in the area of reading, as
well as by means of self-assessment of the reading competences on the adopted scale of levels of
reading accomplishments.
In the section “My Reading World” the information is collected with questionnaires where the
reader specifies their values towards reading and literature, their reading motivation and
preferences, interests and attitudes, reading habits and reflections on reading. The student answers
questions such as: why, what and how much they read, where and when, if they read often in their
free time, if and who they discuss their reading with, if they visit (is there) a library, whose
recommendation they follow in selecting their books to read, which are their favorite books, writers,
themes, genres; if they would like a book as a gift, if they are doing well with reading, what kind of
reader they are, what reading is to them, what they like or don’t like doing when they read, etc.
The section “My Reading Experience” offers opportunities for self-assessment and external
assessment (by the teacher) at the levels of reading competence according to the levels of the
adopted scale and a matrix of descriptors for what they should know and do in reading in order to
cover each level. The descriptors are reader’s activities, which the student should master as to
successfully solve criteria assignments on the respective levels of achievements. The actions are
determined according to the standards for content, and the levels of achievements according to the
scale can be: low, intermediate, high and advanced.
The scale of levels is visualized as stairs to success where the reader can climb from the low to the
high level of comprehending the text. According to the area of assessment (the group of descriptors)
the students complete various lists of reading skills – for reading comprehension; for literary
reading; for cognitive reading. The skills are presented in the form of assignments in lists such as “I
can…“. For instance, the list of key skills for reading comprehension may include the sentences: I
can find specific facts in the text; I can draw conclusions; I can summarize and explain what I
understood; I can evaluate the text. There the students mark the level (e.g. not good, good, very
good), which they achieved by their own judgement which they later compare to the teacher’s
assessment. The teacher helps them distinguish between the skills and to determine their level of
proficiency.
B. The Reader’s Biography is a component, in which the student learns to monitor, control and
plan their own reading development. In the component sections they record how, why and where
they practiced and learned reading; makes an evaluation – current and periodical, about the level of
proficiency and development of their skills with the tools described in the Passport, describes their
teaching strategies and learning needs and set their learning goals, reflect on their achievements.
With the section “My Reading History” the student retrospects key reading events, which mark
their connection with reading from an early age,and explores the territory of reading through
observations in curricular and extracurricular areas of application. Part of the section are also the
lists of recommended books, which the reader can date and annotate after reading.
The section “My Reader’s Accomplishments“provides formative assessment by encouraging the
student to pay attention to their progress periodically (at least three times) by completing self-
assessment control sheets of individual reading skills. The reason is that a descriptor can be
considered covered when the student is able to apply successfully the respective skill multiple times
and with increasing ease in various reading situations.
The check lists for the skills are also basis for current assessment, where the student and the teacher
mark what and how the student can do at the specific moment in the respective column (I can; I do
well; I want to do it). What they can’t do will be set as a goal of following learning and
achievements.
The purpose of the section “My Strategies“ is to help the student discover how to improve their
comprehension of the text, which are the means applicable to solving different reading problems.
For this purpose the student explores their own responses to learning, comments the ways they use
to deal with difficulties, evaluates the range of strategies they master or wish to master, by ticking
their choice in checklists such as: “When I read, … (I ask questions; make and check assumptions;
define the characters, their actions and qualities; compare points of view and determine my own,
etc. )“; or “In order to read better, I can …“ Thus the reflexive analysis of the academic activity
restricts the possibility of inefficient actions in the future and increases the responsibility for
achieving success.
C. The Reader’s Card Index is a component, which offers tools for improving reading
comprehension. It is the learning in this module that transforms the reading activity by integrating
new tools for successful solution of different reading-related assignments and problems . The main
purpose of this component is to enrich the range of strategies for the reader to deal with various
reading assignments, by finding and instrumentalizing the strategies, which the student can learn,
choose, try and apply in different situations and in different stages of the process – before, during
and after reading, in order to achieve the set goals.
The main range we offer includes strategies of proven efficiency in both improving the
comprehension of a given text, and the reading competence for working with texts in general, and
namely: Monitoring and reflection on comprehension - self-monitoring on how, whether and how
much the readers understand the text well, if they can establish difficulties and fix mistakes in
reading; Cooperative learning of strategies by discussing the reading materials; Visualizations,
which support memory and comprehension; asking and answering questions; Structuring the plot
as a tool of recalling the content and answering questions on the reading; Summarizing the
information from the text and summarizing the ideas.
The number of strategies may vary in the different educational periods, and the winning
combinations between them, as well as with additional strategies can be sought and determined with
view to the stages of forming a reader and the levels of achieved reading competence. Research
found that it is easier for the students to master not just isolated strategies, but functional systems,
which realize a certain plan and approach to reading. Therefore, the arrangements of target
strategies in the card index should guide the reader not only in making choices, but also to possible
combinations. In this regard it is useful to add guides for the most frequent uses of each strategy,
e.g. according to the stages (pre-text, text and post-text strategies), the goals of reading and the text
type (informational or literary strategies), the text structures (narrative, descriptive, expository, etc.)
The way of presenting the strategies is also of significance for the success of the self-regulatory
learning. To ensure clarity about the purpose, essence and structure of a strategy, the introductory
technological cards should be written in a language understandable for the children and in a format,
which motivates application. Solutions in this area suggest dialogues in the descriptions as self-
instruction to the reader and visualizations by suitable graphic organizers.
The map is drawn as a series of questions, which the reader answers when they learn a strategy and
which they ask themselves when regulate its application. The selection of questions is determined
by the model of explicit teaching, in preferred I-form, which involves the student into learning from
the first person. The main questions in the self-instruction are the following: What is the strategy?;
Why is it used, what is its purpose?; When and where can I apply it? How is it performed? Who can
I practice it with and discuss it? At the end of each technological map is included an assessment
and self-assessment apparatus: а) on the performance of assignment through an agreed method of
measuring achievements; b) on usefulness of the strategy in certain situation; c) on the skill of
application.
Initially and periodically, the strategies are applied in literature lessons, after work with the whole
class and in small groups for guided reading and writing, and then in extracurricular reading and
independent reading activities outside school. The reading dynamics of integrating new strategies in
the reader’s behavior should be visible in the result of the self-assessment and assessment of the
student in the respective sections in the Reader’s Biography. And the evidence of progress should
be added to the Reader’s Collection.
D. The Reader’s Collection is an archive of evidence, which attests the achievements and
accomplishments in reading and reflects the reading development. In this archive they keep and
value samples of performed reading assignments, projects, presentations, responses and their
assessment, evidence of demonstrated competences, as well as specific products, created about the
portfolio. All these artefacts document and demonstrate the development of the reading activity and
stand as proof for the reading skills, for the achievements and progress in reading, they reflect and
acknowledge the accomplishments through which the student affirm themselves as a reader.
The collection of materials shapes the first layer in the learning process. The documents make it
possible to turn this experience into a subject of analysis and assessment. Through selection and
arrangement of evidence, the experience is processed, structured and transformed. In addition, the
reflexive organizational frames at these levels of the process are set in advance or currently by
agreeing the thematic sections in the collection. The evidence can be grouped into the following
sample blocks: “My achievements in reading and learning“ (with samples of performed criteria
assignments for assessment of achieved levels of reading and writing or connected with application
of different strategies in academic and non-academic situations); “My accomplishments as a reader“
(with expert evidence, which prove that the student participates as a reader and does well with
reading in real situations; certificates or diplomas, acquired for participation at different reading
events at school, at regional and national levels). “Reviews and recommendations for my reading
work” (with written opinions and assessment from the others for the collected artefacts and the
portfolio as a reading product, analyzed on the basis of the assessment and self-assessment form);
“My reflections on reading and learning” – a type of diary of reflection on the learning experience
of reading (what difficulties I have, what discoveries I made, what challenges I took, how I did,
how and why I assess myself in this way). As part of this section or in a separate section can be also
added self-assessment of the portfolio.
Most important about the students in this component are their own products, selected by their
choice as an example of well-performed work. The pedagogical value is exactly in this dual position
– the child is not only an author of the documents, but also takes the part of a critic of their own
production. By selecting the best samples, they learn how to analyze and assess their decisions
according to certain criteria of achievements and learn to write comments in the reflexive diary for
the projects they choose for the collection or for a presentation. The teacher’s job is respectively to
direct towards application of these criteria for assessment and selection, which are compatible with
the descriptors in the reading assessment frame in section Reader’s Biography. The students should
try to explain why they consider a piece of work good or best by determining the significance
according to what purpose was achieved, which skill was mastered, what they learned about
themselves as readers, how they changed through their experience. The reasoning of the decision
can be also encouraged by referring the performed assignment or project to the list of descriptors in
the Reference Reading Framework in several steps: review the self-assessment scale (Passport),
mark the performed assignment in the list of assignments (Reader’s Biography); find the descriptor
on the stairs of the reading levels and self-assessment by an adopted three-stage scale according to
which the assignment can be performed: а) to a small extent; b) quite well; c) really well; general
self-evaluation to cover the level requirements; control assessment by the teacher for compliance of
the level of performance with the level of achievement on the scale.
Completion of assessment sheets and portfolio commentaries or its presentation are another form of
written reflection, practiced at different stages of creating the portfolio. The assessment criteria in
this case refer to the main aspects of the whole and include: content, organization of materials,
quality of reflection and self-assessment, arrangement, creativity. The work can be also evaluated
upon presentation of the portfolio outside the lesson or in out-of-class forms, and at the end of the
year – before the parents.
The presented concept of the functions, structure and ways to use the portfolio in conclusion allows
summarizing the parameters of reflexive learning for the formation of the young student as an
autonomous reader. The autodidactic highlights which this technology sets on the development of
the individual educational trajectory of reading and learning, are the following: Autonomous study
of the reader through work with questionnaires for collecting, updating and exchanging information
about the individual knowledge of reading goals and strategies, attitude to reading, assessment of
oneself as a reader and preferred reading practices; Self-regulation of reading:from the stage of
setting a goal through the selection and application of strategies (planning and realization)to self-
assessment of the process and the result and self-control on the achievements through self-
assessment and self-correction techniques; Self-control in reading, which starts with making
mistakes or having difficulties in comprehension and continues to procedures for their correction
and overcoming. The students compare decisions and discuss methods for comprehension, point out
the source of their difficulties, reconsider decisions and actions; Self-assessment–current and
formative, based on self-observation of the reading process and result, documented and
demonstrated in the reader’s dossier. Self-presentation–collected by choice and according to the
reader’s criteria, the portfolio keeps and values the reading products, transforms them into objects
shared with others, allows the student to follow how their achievements, practices and projects
change over time, gives opportunity to receive objective external assessment. Self-development -
through reflection on the reading activity, set goals, applied strategies and achieved results (what
kind of reader I am), as well as by projections of oneself as a reader (what I want to be and how to
achieve it), this technology helps the students improve their reading and learning skills and assists
in turning them into individual readers who act autonomously and carry the responsibility for their
own development.
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