Gerri's+Portfolio+Examples

Two things are really important for portfolios: **process** and **reflection**. These things can be done in a variety of ways. What I've posted below will show you some simple ways that I work on this with my students.

My assignments for English 111 include writing three short (3 page) papers. Near the end of the semester, my students put these short papers together into one longer paper of at least 7 pages. Here, I've included the portfolio process for one student for the first essay, EW1 (Ethnographic Writing 1). The other two short essays go through the same (or very similar process), so I did not include them here.

Here is Barron's freewrite for her first paper. EW1 is an observation paper that requires description and narration. She started with this as the beginning of her process. Here is Barron's first draft: Between her first and second draft, Barron did some peer reading with her classmates. She also proofread a sentence-by-sentence copy of her paper Here is her second draft: When she was ready to get a grade, Barron revised and submitted the second draft, along with the two reflection pieces below. After I evaluated her essay with the same rubric I asked her to complete, I looked at her reflection and rubric. I wanted to see that she and I were in agreement about the strengths and weaknesses of the paper.



These steps were repeated for EW2 and EW3.

At the end of the semester, I asked Barron to do some reflection on her writing this semester, as well as to address her process for putting the 4th paper together. She came into the class a very strong writer, but her reflection letter give me an excellent idea of what her challenges were and how she overcame them.

If you scroll past the second copy of the letter, you can read Barron's final long paper (8 pages of very good writing).