Essay Test or Multiple Choice..

This is a tough decision. I can't say that one is actually better than the other. It all depends on how you test and did you study. Personally when I know I have had a thorough night of studying I'd prefer to take an essay test because they are direct and its almost as if your regurgitating the answers. On the other hand if the question is formatted in a weird way it may be difficult for your to stress your points. A lot of people think multiple choice test are simple because if you don't know the answers you can always guess, but sometimes the guessing goes completely wrong and your chances of getting a bad grade is increased based on how many options are on the test. In my class I will distribute a variety of different types of test such as; fill in the blanks, matching, multiple choice, and essay, this way I can get a feel of how the students react to each test.

Portfolios

I think portfolios are a great idea in the classroom. In elementary school I remember using portfolios a lot, not only in academic courses but in classes like music or art. It's a great way to keep your students organized and it allows everyone to stay on task. Portfolios provides a form of structure that will benefit the student, teacher, and parents. Portfilios can also be used as a good study guide, I remember using it as this in about the 5th grade. The teacher was going to give us a test on multiple topics that we have learned and we took home the portfolios and studied all of our worksheets that we have done so far. It helped me a lot because it refreshed my memory on some of the older topics that we had learned and I was able to study from the work that I already knew.