Hi everyone!  Welcome to the end of one of the most trying semesters in our teaching careers.

I wanted to give you a few resources to discuss the end-of-term portfolio, if you have decided to go that route.  First of all, HERE is a slideshow about the portfolio which you may want to show your students if you find it helpful.  Much of it is adapted from Portfolio Keeping: A Guide for Students by Nedra Reynolds. Here is a useful quote:

You may recognize the term portfolio from art or finance: Artists keep samples of their best works in a portable case or folder, pieces that represent their interests, their potential, or their development. They show their portfolios to instructors, gallery owners, their peers or potential employers. In finance, a portfolio is a record of investments that is reviewed periodically and updated as needed. Professionals in many other fields also compile portfolios, records of their accomplishments, that they can use to apply for a promotion or a new job.

A portfolio, in other words, is a meaningful collection of selected artifacts or documents, collected over time. Portfolios have become a common method of evaluating and assessing student work in writing classes because they provide a more thorough and authentic picture of a writer’s developing skills. 

Looking at a portfolio as a whole piece of work helps students see their growth and work  throughout the semester– and framing it as Reynolds has helps students see it as something that will be useful to them in their ongoing academic and out-of-school lives.  The slideshow gets into the nuts-and-bolts of how a student might compose one!

Note: in this slideshow, I refer to another slideshow on revision, which can be found HERE.

Reynolds, Nedra, and Elizabeth Davis. Portfolio Keeping: A Guide for Students. Bedford St. Martins, 2014.