This book guides teachers on using portfolios and authentic assessment to create reflective students and teachers through specific instruction, examples, and descriptions of many actual elementary school classrooms, teachers, and students who use this approach. Authentic assessment allows students to participate actively in their own learning. Portfolios, a collection of student work, are an important tool in this approach. An introduction describes in detail a classroom where this approach has been implemented and offers actual views of students, parents, and teachers who were involved. The first section explains self-regulated learning including characteristics, psychological principles, and how traditional practices undermine it. The second section treats learner-centered principles of assessment and looks at assessments that promote reflection and students' self-assessment. The third section examines promoting student self-reflection through class activities such as portfolios, self-evaluations, inventories, and surveys, journals, self-portraits, letters and conferences. The next section discusses strengthening home-school connections through letters, parent profiles of their children, parent-teacher conferences, home portfolios, dialogue journals, and home-school classroom activities. The next section on becoming reflective teachers discusses the characteristics of reflective teachers and the consequences of being reflective. The last section offers a final review. An appendix provides a brief description of each of 12 learner-centered psychological principles. Includes a glossary. Contains 57 references. (JB)