Our Academic Coach, Asya, remarks on the immense growth that HIT students demonstrated through their student portfolios at TMA this year.
High-Impact Tutors at Thurgood Marshall Academy PCHS are wrapping up the school year by assisting students with their 2025 student portfolio presentations. These students’ portfolios are a culmination of their most important experiences, assignments, and lessons learned throughout the 2024-2025 school year. Students who are part of the High-Impact Tutoring program often worked on these highlighted assignments during tutoring sessions. It’s been a great experience helping them present their growth to others.
Documenting the Year:
Within their digital portfolio, students document their year in five sections: Academics and Habits, Projects, Law Component, Community Service, College, Career, and TMA Appreciation. Time was allocated during study hall periods for students to compile their information, edit their drafts, and receive feedback from teachers and peers. Students also received coaching on best practices for creating engaging, succinct, and personal presentations. On the big day, they dressed to impress their panel of teachers and staff and were critiqued on their adherence to the rubric as well as professional dress and public speaking skills. Most students across grade levels excelled in two categories: Academics and Habits and the Law Component. They successfully compiled relevant data and tracked patterns in their behaviors and associated results. Their insights were honest, reflective, and very useful.
Academics and Habits
Students created and uploaded a graph showing their GPA each quarter, listed their strongest habits, and weakest habits that contributed to these results. Students then highlighted the class they showed the most growth in and what contributed to this success. They ended this section by summarizing the academic lessons they learned over the year.
Law Component
Thurgood Marshall Academy, named after the legendary Baltimore civil rights lawyer and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, teaches students five key legal skills in each class, regardless of content area: research, argumentation, critical thinking, advocacy, and negotiation. Students then use these skills to participate in mock trials each year, engage with volunteers from local lawyers and judges, and engage with local politics. Students reflected on how these experiences have enriched their academic journeys.
Conclusion
The portfolio process allowed students to document, analyze, and present to others some of their greatest wins and losses of the school year as well as lessons they learned from those moments. Students gained valuable insight into the type of student they currently are, who they want to be, and how to make the changes they think are necessary to reach that goal.