First, when setting out to produce a portfolio, both teachers and students have to decide what they are going to work on. In adult basic education this means discussing the students' aims in coming to learn and agreeing on what they might reasonably expect to achieve within a specified period. On the basis of this discussion, teachers and students can identify the sorts of written documents or texts that will be produced as they work together. In this way they formulate a programme of work and set themselves a goal: to produce a specified range of texts over a specified period.

Then, in the course of the work, and especially at the end of the period, students with the help of their teachers look over what they have done and decide which particular pieces should be selected for the portfolio. They often write an introductory cover letter too, in which they explain what they have included and comment on what they have achieved. These activities promote reflection and evaluation and so they are valuable learning experiences in themselves.²

In summary, the portfolio is both a tool and a process which serves two important purposes for the learner:

1. demonstrating the learner's abilities and achievement of personal goals;
2. assisting learners in gaining greater control over learning and evaluation of their learning.