During the fall of 2002, we did a six-week study of the Arctic region. During our study, reading, writing, science, art and social studies all focused on the Arctic and the people of that region. A mini-unit also included learning about sled dogs and the Iditarod. We collected our work in large, plastic, zippered bags. At the end of the unit, the children reviewed all the assignments, talking about what they had learned. Student comments were recorded on little balloon bubbles (like you would see in cartoons, but bigger.) This process encouraged the children to:

• recall what they learned
• verbalize what they learned
• remember what they learned (when they go back and look through their portfolders in the months to come)

Here are two samples:

Portfolder 1
Portfolder 2