in a student’s portfolio and help the student reflect on why that student
chose a particular piece.
When portfolios are developed around the Habits of Mind, the habits
are transdisciplinary. This approach answers the question many teachers
face about how to have one portfolio that can work across all subjects.
“This poem has no beginning” was the first line of a poem in the port-
folio of Tracy from Southampton Public Schools in Southampton, New
York. When asked why she wanted to include this poem in her portfolio,
she replied, “I want to be able to describe my process for developing a
piece of writing.” She then described how she often takes a walk through
the woods by a stream, returns to her room, clears her desk, plays music,
and starts to write. In the case of this particular poem, she still was not feel-
ing inspired. She sat with pen in hand and finally wrote, “This poem has
no beginning,” and the writing just seemed to flow from there.
Tracy was trying to describe what some might call incubation—that
time when one is developing an idea, either consciously or precon-
sciously. Through work with her teacher, she came to understand the sig-
nificance of making that process of development conscious, explicit, or
what we refer to as metacognitive. Tracy entered this piece as an example
of how she had grown as a writer and how aware she was of her process for
moving an idea from incubation to reality.
Amy, a 6th grade student in Mamaroneck Public Schools in Mamaro-
neck, New York, was asked to choose a piece of writing for her portfolio
that demonstrated her development as a problem solver. The teacher was
surprised by her choice, but she better understood when she read the fol-
lowing reflection:
This piece was written after my grandfather died. I was so sad that
he died, and I did not know how to rid myself of the sadness. We
went on a class trip, and I took photos of where we were. I placed
those photos around my bed and laid on my bed for hours look-
ing at the photos and thinking about my grandfather. Finally, I
got up and wrote this piece. It shows how I was able to solve my
problem of sadness through writing.Assessing Habits of Mind 207