How to make a portfolio sample. How to create a competent portfolio for a designer

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In UX design, portfolios mean more than higher education. Employers and hiring managers will use your portfolio to determine your experience, aesthetics and, more importantly, your ability to solve business problems in the real world.

Creating your first portfolio can seem like an incredibly daunting task. I've put together a comprehensive guide to help aspiring UX designers create a portfolio that showcases their unique stories.

1. Create a website

This is an obvious step when creating a good online portfolio. Your website is not a simple description of your work - it is your work. Do your best to make it perfect.

1.1 Connect web analytics

Add Google Analytics to your website to collect visitor statistics. This will help you build a profile of your visitors: who recently visited your site (location), for how long and what projects they viewed of yours. With this data, you can optimize the performance of your website to the maximum.

1.2 Make your navigation as clear as possible

Don't experiment and do things smart. Make sure that users know exactly how to find out more about you: about you page, portfolio, contacts, etc.

It's tempting to point out that you're good at everything to be more competitive, but you should avoid this idea. Instead, focus on your core skills and use your experience to convey why they are so important.

3. Think about how to structure your projects

Despite your approach and the aesthetics of your website, most employers want to know how you solve problems. Spend some time thinking about how you will present your projects to maximize their value.

3.1 Place most suitable projects first (instead of last)

Let your most impressive projects be displayed first, rather than in chronological order. This is especially important if you have little experience and are looking to get your first job in UX. Keep in mind that your portfolio should not only show your past work, but also indicate the direction of development. Make sure you only add to your portfolio the type of projects you want to work on more.

3.2 Create promising previews

The initial stages of candidate selection can be ruthless. A recruiting manager or employer must review dozens (if not hundreds) of portfolios to select a few. Don't be surprised that they often make a decision in less than a minute. Troy Park and Patrick Ne'eman claim that people spend approximately 10-15 seconds looking at a UX portfolio. Try to convey project details concisely using text and check whether basic information is accessible on your site using the 60-second test.

Alan Shen's portfolio has good previews for each project.

3.3 Overcome the NDA (non-disclosure agreement)

For many designers, NDAs are the biggest threat to their portfolio. However, an NDA should not be a reason to exclude a project from your portfolio. Here are some ways to solve the NDA problem:

• Ask permission. If you have a good relationship with the client, you may be allowed to publish the project, especially if you leave out all the sensitive details.
• Depersonalize the work. Leave out certain information and use blur to hide elements that are suggestive of the client. A potential employer will be more interested in seeing the big picture (what you can do) rather than the specific details of another company.
• Re-creation. If you can't show the actual project, recreate it to show what you did. Just remember to indicate that this is a recreated work.

3.4 Just don’t say that you don’t have projects for your portfolio

All recent graduates have the same problem - they can't get work experience without a portfolio, and they can't get a portfolio without work experience. I recommend showing your potential in any way possible. For example, you can participate in the Daily UI Challenge and add some of the best ones to your portfolio. DailyUI is especially good for beginners because it not only helps develop your skills, but also makes you more visible in the design community. Additionally, I recommend adding academic work and concept projects to your portfolio.

3.5 Focus on quality instead of quantity

Smaller is better for your portfolio. Select 2 or 3 projects and describe them in detail. Eliminate projects that are too similar to each other; one story will be enough. It is quite normal to have a portfolio of just one project, as long as it is a good project.

Michael Everson's entire portfolio is built around one project - SoundCloud for iOS. He describes all stages of development in detail and backs them up with excellent previews, so he makes it clear how it works.

4. Describe in detail

While in other industries it will be enough to show only the final product or describe the results, in UX everything is different. More than just seeing the finished product, employers/customers want to know how you solved the problem. It is very important to show what process your work went through and that it did not just appear as if by magic. Although the format of the description may vary depending on the project, in general, I recommend dividing each project into two stages: the overview and the UX process. First comes the review. The visitor should be able to immediately understand what the project is about and its goals. Here are the topics you can add:

• Project objectives- Why was the project started?
• Target- What results do you need to get?
• Duration- How much time was spent?
• Team- Who did you work with on the project? Add names and links to their LinkedIn profiles.
• Your role- What contribution did you make to the project?
• Result- Images/videos or links to download the application, view the prototype, source codes.

Each work in Yitong Zhang's portfolio begins with a brief overview.

The UX Process stage is perhaps the most important part of your portfolio. As a UX designer, you need to take explaining the entire process very seriously because you will be judged on it.

Example of a UX process. Image: Zurb.

You must understand that your work can only be assessed in context. Describe the problem and its solution, show the process you went through to get the final product.

• Design problem/challenge- It could be something simple, for example, a few sentences that talk about the (business) problem you were solving.
• User audience research- Describe your users and their needs, motivations and pain points. This part may include the tools you used to collect this information (for example, characters and sympathy cards). You can also mention competitor analysis (consider the strengths and weaknesses of competitors in solving user needs).
• Solution- In this part, answer the following questions: How did you solve the problem? Why did you choose this decision and what influenced your choice?
• Design- Be sure to describe how you went from ideas to a specific solution. Show block diagrams, mockups and working prototypes (yes, these are all different things - approx. per.). Employers need to know that you can do it and can look at the project from a developer's point of view. If possible, add an interactive prototype (such as InVision) to allow visitors to play with it.
• Testing- How do you define success/failure? How did you test your solution? What questions did you ask?

4.1 Create a strong story

Your projects are a story about you and your projects, a narrative about your journey, your successes and problems, your obstacles along the way.

• Prioritize different information about your project and give it to readers in the right place to make the story more interesting.
• Showcase your problem solving skills. When describing different parts of your work in your portfolio, make sure you clearly communicate the problem you had and how you solved it.
• Demonstrate your ability to apply the appropriate tools to solve a problem.
• Show your ability to express yourself concisely using words and images. Explain the process step by step and give the images context.
• Try to clearly show what you learned while working on the project.

Simon Pen tells each part of the design as a story in itself, complete with superb imagery. The development story of Amazon Prime Music from Simon's portfolio.

4.2 Describe the impact of your work

Show the value you bring to the company that hired you. If possible, describe how your design led the company to success. If there are positive results, be sure to share them: highlight why the project was successful (target metrics increased by X%) and reinforce your role in achieving it.

Another example from Simon's portfolio. Outcome of the ILC NSW ‘AT Magic’ project

4.3 Don't focus on visual representation

Don't pretend that you are a visual designer (if you are not). Remember that the purpose of a portfolio is not to show off your amazing design skills. Competent visual design skills are definitely a plus, but don't confuse them with your role's core mission of "solving business problems by designing user experiences."

Slava Kim's portfolio focuses too much on images and does not provide basic information about the UX process.

4.4 Don't focus only on the end goal

Quite often, UX designers in their portfolios focus on the final product, rather than the “journey” of the project. However, hiring managers are less interested in the final product and more interested in the process of creating those products. A good portfolio is always complemented by the research behind the final result.

Michael Szczepanski presents each piece as a moving story that highlights his insight.

4.5 Don’t overestimate your contribution

Do not lie. It's easy to take all the credit for a project that an entire team worked on. Remember, honesty is the best strategy: if you don't know how to do something or don't have experience in it, don't talk about it in your portfolio! Be clear and honest about your role and those who worked with you. Add tags

The word portfolio is derived from the English word portfolio, that is, a folder or briefcase with documents. Today, a portfolio means a list of works, achievements, abilities, knowledge and skills of a specialist. Your portfolio should convince a potential client or employer to work with you. Let's look at how to create a portfolio.

What does a portfolio include?

Typically, a portfolio includes a resume that contains information about education, skills and work experience, a list of previous jobs, recommendations from clients and employers, professional awards, victories in competitions, and additional skills. Let's take a look and find out how to create a portfolio.

A portfolio is your business card, where you collect samples of your work. To find a job via the Internet, this is the most important component. An employer, without seeing you, but by reading your portfolio, can understand whether you are suitable for him or not. From your portfolio, he can learn about your professionalism and experience, look at your previous works and draw conclusions. Thus, a lot of time, nerves and effort are saved, both for customers and for you. The employer will contact you only if you are suitable for him and he is ready to give you an order.

The main task of the portfolio is to create the best impression of you on the customer. And the customer is interested in quality, price and experience, and reviews from other employers will also be useful. Therefore, when creating a portfolio, it is important to keep these points in mind.

The portfolio should reveal all your experience in the chosen direction, because it is the main requirement of all employers. Therefore, it is important to choose only your best work for your portfolio. You shouldn’t overload your portfolio with links to your work; it’s better to note in your portfolio that you can send more examples of your work if necessary. The customer will like this approach, because it is also not superfluous to be able to conduct a business conversation.

Reviews about your work on some websites or forums can make you stand out positively. In addition, if your work has been mentioned in newspapers or magazines, this will also set you apart from other applicants. It is worth mentioning your education.

Copywriter portfolio

For a copywriter, creating a portfolio is like presenting your services.

How to properly design a copywriter’s portfolio? The main goal of the portfolio is to attract a potential customer. For many customers, a portfolio is the main indicator of a specialist, and they do not take into account reviews and ratings.

Of course, your work will tell you more about you than reviews and ratings. And based on your work, the customer will immediately understand whether you are suitable for him or not. To create an attractive and revealing portfolio, you need to apply at least seven techniques.

• Number of works. Everyone knows that it is not quantity that matters, but quality. But many aspiring authors add almost all of their work to their portfolio. There is no need to place everything there; it is better to choose several works that you think are beautiful.
• Variety of topics. You should not include monotonous articles and articles of the same topic in your portfolio. Better show diversity and prove that you are capable of writing diverse articles.
• Popularity of topics. Copywriting is about making money, so we enter into market relations with existing laws. Experienced authors know that among the many topics, there are a dozen popular and common topics on the Internet. Therefore, the presence of articles on popular topics in the portfolio is mandatory.
• Genres. It is also important to show the customer completely different genres of writing articles. The more a performer can do, the more respectful customers treat him. You can place commercial offers, texts on the main pages of websites, press releases, poems, interviews, and so on in your portfolio.
• Independent work. If you don't have many examples of your work yet, don't despair. Write articles on popular genres and topics. You can find many platforms online to post your texts. There is no need to be lazy to write for free, because you are doing this for your future success.
• Headings. Each work in the portfolio has its own title. But there is no need to call the work the title of the article itself. A greater effect can be achieved if you name the work by its topic and genre, because this is how customers look for illustrative examples in your portfolio, on a similar genre and topic.
• Prize-winning texts. Competitions for copywriters are held from time to time on various resources. Not only on content exchanges, but also on various blogs and forums. Therefore, this needs to be monitored. If you have a winning article in your portfolio, then customers will respect you, because it’s more pleasant to work with winners and leaders.

First-grader portfolio

At the moment, there are no strictly established rules on how to prepare a first-grader’s portfolio. Usually the names of the sections are given by the teacher. If the teacher has not given any recommendations, then you should approach this from a creative side. The portfolio should include several sections. But parents of first-graders do not always know how to draw up a portfolio and what exactly to include there: creative works or educational achievements. Perhaps in the third grade your child wants to go to art school, then photographs of plasticine sculptures, his drawings and participation in art competitions will be very useful to you. Well, if your child decides to go to a math class, then samples of excellent class work for the first grade will be more useful.

In addition to creative and school work, parents add moments from school life to the portfolio (photos of the child’s vacation, children’s stories about class and family). But most often, a school portfolio has a title page (contact information, a portrait photograph of the student, his first and last name), content and several sections (my world, my studies, my creativity, my achievements, and so on).

Sections of a first-grader's portfolio:

• “My World” - information that is interesting and important for the child is posted here. Some people post here information about the baby's name and its meaning, information about famous people with the same name.
• "My family". Here you need to talk about the family, the origin of the surname, talk about the household members.
• "My city". Here you can describe the child’s small homeland and include the route from school to home.
• "My studies". Each item is allocated a separate sheet. Here you can add successful tests, interesting reports, reviews of books you have read.
• "My social work." These are thanks for reading a poem on the line or for participating in a school play.
• "My art". Photos of crafts and paintings, information about exhibitions and competitions in which the child participated are posted here. If the events were covered in newspapers or magazines, add newspaper clippings or a printed article from the Internet to your portfolio.
• "My impressions". These are the most vivid impressions of the baby. Photos and stories about visiting theaters, museums, and other cities.
• "My achievements". This is a collection of official documents.

In addition to these sections, there may be others.

First grader's portfolio title page

How to design a title page? On the Internet you can find a wide variety of templates for the title page of a portfolio, but the main thing is that it should say: “Last name, First name and patronymic of the student,” his contact information, date of birth and portrait photograph.

A competent portfolio is the first step to large orders

Every day more and more competent and intelligent specialists are going freelance. There are many reasons for this: a free schedule, higher earnings, the opportunity to be your own boss, and no offices or picky bosses. I am sure that those of you who have tasted the delights of freelancing will think several times before returning to normal life. But today we won’t talk about all the advantages of this type of work, but we’ll talk about how to increase your income, find good customers, and get more pay.

Article on the topic:

During the time that I have been working and earning money on the Internet, I have been both a customer and a freelancer performing many assigned tasks. Therefore, all the advice that will be described below is not dry theory and knowledge taken and “heard somewhere,” but real experience gained over several years of hard work.
So, what do you think is the most important thing for a client when choosing a freelancer? First of all, his skills and experience in performing a particular task. How can you find out? Of course, through a portfolio. The customer’s first acquaintance with a freelancer occurs precisely through familiarization with the work performed. And here the most important rule applies: “They are greeted by their clothes, but they are seen off...”. How you see off will depend on the tasks completed. But now the main thing is to meet us, be surprised, become interested, place an order and cooperate on an ongoing basis.

I am sure that everyone reading these lines is interested in creating a competent and beautiful portfolio. How else? A good and self-respecting specialist who claims to receive orders worth thousands of dollars is simply obliged to have a perfect “face” that he presents to the customer. Of course, if you plan to get by with small customers worth a hundred dollars, and do not want to reach a qualitatively new level, then feel free to close the article, it is not for you.
Are you still with us? Great! It’s good that the desire to work, earn money, and live in a new way has prevailed. So, today we will look at the main aspects of creating a competent and beautiful portfolio.

Article on the topic:

How to create a portfolio - the main aspects of this issue

For those who are just starting their journey in freelancing and have heard about such a concept as “portfolio”, but have not fully understood its meaning, let us give a short definition. As a rule, if you hear from a customer a desire to get acquainted with your portfolio, this means that he wants to view a list of your most successful works on a given topic.

For example, if we look at a web designer's portfolio, it includes the best web resources that the designer has created over the past few months. Also images of banners, various technical elements, inserts, headers, etc. If we talk about copywriters, their portfolio consists of texts of different topics and directions. The copywriter must show how he writes regular text, motivating, selling, and how he works with various topics: from finance to nuclear physics. In general, in your portfolio you need to show how good you are, and why you should be chosen and not another candidate for this project.

Very often, one glance is enough to understand whether this performer is suitable for the client or not. I often came across situations where in words the freelancer was almost a young Bill Gates, capable of realizing any of my ideas, but after looking at the portfolio, I realized that there is not even a thousandth part of Gates here. Perhaps the person has some potential, and his work is better than what he showed in the portfolio, but you don’t want to take risks. Therefore, if you are truly confident in yourself and know that you are capable of applying for good orders, then pay due attention to compiling a high-quality portfolio.

Article on the topic:

Making a “working” portfolio

A portfolio should not just “be”, it should work and sell you, your services, knowledge, and skills. In order to make a “working” portfolio you must:
1. First, you need to highlight the main areas in which you really work and feel “like a fish in water.” This could be internal website optimization, design drawing, writing selling and motivating texts, etc. For the sake of beauty, there is no need to highlight those areas in which you specialize little or do not specialize at all, because this can be a big disadvantage.

2. After you have identified your strengths and determined your direction, you need to select 10-15 best works. If you have fewer of them, then it’s not scary, you can have up to 10, but the main thing is that they are of high quality, reveal all aspects of your activity, and show your skills from different angles. It is from these works that the first impression of you as a specialist will be formed.

4. Place your portfolio on your personal business card website. Everyone should be able to download it or watch it online. Also remember that opportunities come at the most unexpected times and in unusual places. Therefore, carry a flash drive with your portfolio with you, because you never know where the next opportunity to receive an order will turn up.

Article on the topic:

What do you need to show in your portfolio?

Many beginning freelancers ask the question: “What kind of work should I show in my portfolio?” Reading various forums, you may come across advice that it is better to include only the most successful works in your portfolio. But if you are a young specialist, then you should not do this. Of course, if you have been working for several years, have completed hundreds, or even thousands of tasks, then you can afford to sort through and select the best. But a young freelancer does not have such luxury. Why? Primarily due to the fact that the customer evaluates not only the quality of work, but also experience. And if you show that you completed your first job 3 months ago, and during this time you completed a hundred more tasks, then such a trend will speak about your experience, your desire to work and develop your skills. Experience is a very important part of being a good freelancer. Believe me, when I see a copywriter's portfolio indicating that they have written thousands of articles, it says a lot.

Another piece of advice – don’t post your best work, dilute it with projects completed at an average level. As a rule, you won’t always be able to work perfectly, because creative highs don’t happen every day. Therefore, be honest with the customer, say that you will try to do everything perfectly and better than before, but at the same time make it clear what he can count on.

Where is a portfolio required?

Modern freelancers use many methods to find employers. Someone leaves their link on specialized forums, someone promotes a personal website, but the most popular and effective place to find an employer remains freelance exchanges.
On stock exchanges, the correct design of your personal account and the compilation of a competent portfolio play a very important role. As I already said, first of all, the customer looks at your experience, the amount of work completed, and evaluates your skills based on the presented portfolio.

If you do not have a portfolio, then the number of orders from the exchange will tend to zero. Unless you get the cheapest and most uninteresting tasks that other performers have refused. But who wants to do work for pennies? That’s right, no one, and in order to be competitive, to fight for the “juiciest” customers, you must have a high-quality portfolio.

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How to create a portfolio on the stock exchange?

After creating a personal page on the exchange, you must enter your personal data, information about skills and abilities. On all exchanges it is almost identical and does not vary much. Typically, you will be prompted to enter the following information:
— your specialization;
- job title; —
a short comment (about 350 characters);
— a personal photo or screenshot of the site (if you are a designer), a screenshot of an article (if you are a journalist), a screenshot of the CMS admin panel with comments (if you are a programmer);
- link to the main source.

Remember a very important rule: if you write that you are an expert in some field, then be sure to include at least 3 versions of completed work so that the customer has the opportunity to evaluate your skills. Imagine a situation: a customer is looking for a contractor, comes to your page, everything suits him, but there are no examples of completed work (you simply forgot or were too lazy to upload them, or maybe you left this matter “for later”). With a 99.99% probability, such a customer will close your profile and look for a contractor further.
I often have to work with the freelans.ru exchange, so I would like to give some advice to those who also want to look for their orders there.
1. Your success directly depends on the quality of your portfolio. This is already clear, but this exchange maintains a rating of freelancers and awards points for works placed in the portfolio. It’s not strange that experienced performers strive to do as many works as possible and present them all on their profile.
2. If you claim that you specialize in various areas, then provide evidence of this in the form of completed work.
3. Let's say that you have about a thousand completed works, but this does not mean that they all need to be presented. Customers are people too, and you shouldn’t pressure them with information. The optimal placement would be 15 works for each direction.
4. Ask your customers who are satisfied with the work performed to leave comments and reviews. An exchange rating is good, but reviews from real customers sometimes play a key, decisive role.
And at the end of the article, so that you consolidate the information received, I will give an example of a good portfolio and an unsuccessful one. When you see mistakes clearly, it’s easier to understand what’s going on.

You will find a competent portfolio here:

http://freelance.ru/users/Sersh/

Advantages of the presented sample:
Available works are the best and freshest
In each direction you can find from 2 to 6 projects
Along with the articles there are screenshots
Proper title and thorough description of projects are presented Pages look neat
There is an avatar (employee photo)
The presented portfolio can be used as a sample for designing your own electronic portfolio.

Download a book:

Portfolio option that requires some improvement:

http://weblancer.net/users/asvQn/portfolio/

Disadvantages of this portfolio:
Very few works (especially recent ones)
No screenshots, preview
Not all main areas of work are reflected (for example, there is no work with texts)
The presented portfolio requires significant improvement and elimination of the above-mentioned shortcomings.

An elementary school student’s portfolio is a certain set of various documents, characteristics, photographs, samples of completed educational work, diplomas, awards, certificates of merit, which must be submitted for examination to the selection committee of a particular educational institution. Thanks to the portfolio, you can get a preliminary general picture about the child, his knowledge and achievements, what he has achieved and who he wants to become.

Of course, without the help of parents, a child will not be able to independently compose his biography and give a full assessment of his knowledge and achievements, so parents need to know the rules for drawing up such an important “document.”

Ways to design a portfolio for a primary school student

There are several ways to correctly format and compile the so-called student’s resume:

1. You can find samples of your child’s ready-made presentation for an educational institution on the Internet, but there is a high probability of duplication.


2. It is more advisable to study the rules for creating a portfolio and create it together with your child. Such a portfolio will definitely be bright and memorable, which will accordingly increase your child’s chances. And the most important thing is that you and your baby will make it together. It will also help you learn a lot of new things about your child, what he thinks about, what he wants to achieve, what he wants to change and much more.


3. If you don’t like the first two methods and don’t want to waste time, then you can turn to specialists. But you must be prepared to pay for this service. In addition, no one guarantees that information about your child will be presented correctly.

How to create a portfolio for an elementary school student yourself

To independently prepare a portfolio for an elementary school student, you will need the following:

• Fantasy


• Patience


• Printer (preferably color)


• Ability to work with Painte and Photoshop programs

The content of your child’s portfolio may consist of several main sections, in which the following topics should be comprehensively covered:

1. Let's get acquainted.
   1.1. My portrait (photo);
   1.2. Personal data;
   1.3. My family;
   1.4. My friends;
   1.5. Character;
   1.6. Hobbies;
   1.7. What I want to become;
   1.8. My goals and hobbies;


2. A collection of educational achievements.


3. A collection of creative works.

The photo below shows examples, you can expand them at your discretion.

Once you and your child have decided what information you will provide, start writing meaningfully.

In the first section, write the student’s full details: full name, date of birth. Be sure to include a photo of the child, preferably in a business suit. When writing the “my family” subsection, describe the student’s parents; if there are brothers or sisters, write about them and, if desired, place their photo. Consult with your child and find out from him who he considers his friend or girlfriend - let him describe him or her in detail. Pay special attention to describing the child’s character, his hobbies, what he dreams of and what he wants to achieve, in school and in life.

In the sections on educational and creative achievements, try to provide information about academic success, participation in school Olympiads, sports competitions, theatrical performances and other educational, creative and sporting events. If you have certificates and awards, be sure to indicate and include color copies of them in your portfolio. Examples of creating different sections are given below.

The word “portfolio,” which is still unclear to many, is firmly entrenched in our lives. Now it accompanies a person from early childhood. We will try to tell you what it is and why a student needs it. The term “portfolio” itself comes to us from the Italian language: portfolio in translation means “folder with documents”, “specialist’s folder”.

When to start creating a portfolio?

In recent years, the practice of creating a student’s portfolio has become widespread. Today it is compulsory in many educational institutions. Even preschool institutions include in their work activities to collect the child’s successes. The first grader now needs to start organizing his achievements folder. Of course, it is very difficult for a child who is in elementary school to do this on his own, so parents often prepare this folder. Parents' questions and surprises are quite natural, because at one time they did not encounter such a requirement. In our article we will try to answer the question of how to make a portfolio for a schoolchild.

Why does a schoolchild need a “folder with documents”, and what should be in it?

Tracking all the successes and results of any child’s activity is a good practice, because it helps adults reveal the versatility of the child’s personality. And it is important for a little person to be aware of his first achievements in order to develop further. Information about the child, his family, environment, academic success at school, certificates and diplomas received for participation in various school and extracurricular activities, photographs, creative works showing the child’s knowledge, abilities, skills - all this is a kind of presentation of skills, interests, the child's hobbies and abilities. The collected information will be useful when moving to another school or when further choosing specialized classes and when entering a higher education institution. The main goal of a primary school student’s portfolio is to identify all the child’s strengths and reveal his inner potential through a structural collection of his work, grades and achievements. This helps to form a child’s motivation for activity, teach him to set goals and achieve success.

Portfolio is a creative product

Having decided to start creating a portfolio for a 1st grade student, you must first think through its components, decide which sections or chapters will be included in it, and what they will be called. Very often, primary school teachers prefer a uniform structure for all students, and therefore, when informing you that you need to prepare a portfolio, they will also offer a rough plan for it. In this case, parents will not have to rack their brains over the components themselves. By and large, a student’s portfolio is a creative document, and not a single regulatory act contains clear requirements for it prescribed by the state.

Every parent understands that first grade is an important period in a child’s life: getting to know teachers and classmates, gradually growing up and increasing independence. When moving from the conditions of kindergarten to school, where everything is new and unusual, the child experiences a little stress; the student’s portfolio helps him get used to the new place faster. The sample for compiling it may vary depending on the class and school, but it must contain information about the child and his parents (legal representatives), about his interests and hobbies. All this data will help children quickly find new friends and common interests with classmates, and it will be easier for the teacher to organize the learning process and conversations with children.

General form - individual filling

Each school or even each class can develop its own student portfolio, a sample of which will be offered by the teacher to children and parents, but still this folder is something like a “business card” of the child, and therefore it should reflect his individuality.

Select a template

Children will not be interested in simple sheets, notes, photographs; they will be much more attracted to a cheerful colorful design. Therefore, first, select templates for your student’s portfolio that can be easily found today. And then, together with your child, choose the appropriate one. If you couldn’t find anything you needed, then you can create a template yourself that will best suit what you had in mind. Not every parent can create a template on their own, and even if they cope with this task, they will have to spend a lot of time. This is why ready-made templates for student portfolios, which can be edited quickly and easily, are so popular.

Characters adored by children can be used in the design. Boys, for example, love cars. Portfolios with racing cars are perfect for those who love racing and speed. Girls prefer princesses or fairies as a design element. You need to remember that pictures with your favorite characters should not distract from the content; their role is to set you in a positive mood when opening a folder.

What to tell about yourself

The first section of a primary school student’s portfolio, as a rule, includes personal data. This is the title page, where the first and last name are indicated, and also a photograph of the child is placed, which he must choose himself. This section may also include an autobiography, a story about yourself, a list of long-term and short-term study plans. The child must be involved in filling it out, encouraging his initiative. Let him write about the character qualities that he has, about his favorite activities and hobbies, talk about the city in which he lives, about his family and friends, about those with whom he is friends, about his first or last name, about school and class . You can also write a dream about what the student wants to become when he grows up. The student can even post the daily routine he follows. He must describe everything that interests him and what he considers important.

A child, while filling out a folder, can make small discoveries - for example, read for the first time about the origin of the first and last name.

It's not easy to describe your world

The first part may have its own subsections. Perhaps they will be included in the student’s finished portfolio, which you will create yourself, taking into account the child’s individuality. If your child is passionate about reading, create a “My Favorite Books” section. A passion for nature can be reflected in the “My Pets” section.

The portfolio is not filled forever; it will be replenished and changed over time. If a child writes answers to the question “What can I do and love to do,” then by the fourth grade the information entered by the first-grader will definitely lose its relevance. Therefore, regular filling work at least several times a year will bring more benefit.

Success and achievements section

If a child has already accumulated certificates and diplomas received for participating in various school competitions, then parents have no choice but to make a portfolio for the student. You can place them in chronological order or divide them into sections, for example, “Achievements in studies” and “Merits in sports,” although for a primary school student all his achievements are important. This part will contain information related mainly to studies and creative activities. This data will be gradually updated over the years of study at school.

You can add your first copybook, successful drawing or applique to your first-grader's achievements.

If the event in which the child took part was covered in the media, you can make newspaper clippings or print online pages with the message for the student’s portfolio.

Children choose their own activities and attend classes in clubs, sections and clubs. Information about them can also be included in a special section. There may be information about the institution the student attends.

How do I study?

Educational activities, as the main activity in the life of a child of primary school age, should be given a separate section. There can be not only a table like a school report card, but also successfully completed tests, first notebooks, a sheet with the first five. You can also include indicators of reading technique here.