Portfolio Assessment
This last semester in COM101 (Composition I), I tried portfolio assessment for the first time. I modified the "traditional" portfolio approach some to accommodate certain departmental requirements for grading, but all in all it worked pretty well. The students still worked on four major essays prior to the midterm. Each essay passed through the class in two official drafts--one for a peer review workshop and one for my feedback. Neither of the drafts was graded except to "check it in" for some minor "formative" points. Students were then encouraged to continue working on these drafts as their time allowed. They were invited to solicit additional feedback from me through one-on-one writing conferences. Of course, they could also ask their peers for more feedback. Each of the four essays was thematically connected to the others such that the ideas built one upon another. The portfolio, then, that was assembled and submitted for a grade at midterm was more than just a collection of four papers; it was a scholarly project.
I discovered some tremendous benefits in portfolio assessment this past semester. For the first time, I feel that I was really able to teach revision in an effective manner. I actually witnessed students engaging in the revision process with success. This by far was the greatest benefit. Revision is so central to the writing process, and yet it is often something more talked about than practiced in a writing classroom. Time constraints and so forth tend to limit the possibility of engaging in real revision. The portfolio approach helped to overcome this limitation. Other benefits included an authentic sense of student accomplishment. Rather than falling into the old "one and done" method of writing where students write papers at 3am the morning before they are due, get a mediocre grade, and then retire the paper to the trunks of their cars or the bowels of their bookbags, students actually worked toward something much larger. They engaged in actual scholarly work. They wrote a lot and began to take some real pride in the work. It was cool. Sure there will always be those who don't do what they are supposed to do. Those who don't have faith in the process and effectively disengage themselves from the class. But the majority, I would say, did follow along with the process and reaped the benefits.
The downside for me as a teacher was the workload. While portfolio grading allowed me to suspend actual grading until the portfolios came in, once they did come, I was buried. This was tough but seeing the results was worth it. I'm convinced that portfolio assessment is best for the students--especially in a writing course--even if it can get a bit overwhelming for the teacher.
I discovered some tremendous benefits in portfolio assessment this past semester. For the first time, I feel that I was really able to teach revision in an effective manner. I actually witnessed students engaging in the revision process with success. This by far was the greatest benefit. Revision is so central to the writing process, and yet it is often something more talked about than practiced in a writing classroom. Time constraints and so forth tend to limit the possibility of engaging in real revision. The portfolio approach helped to overcome this limitation. Other benefits included an authentic sense of student accomplishment. Rather than falling into the old "one and done" method of writing where students write papers at 3am the morning before they are due, get a mediocre grade, and then retire the paper to the trunks of their cars or the bowels of their bookbags, students actually worked toward something much larger. They engaged in actual scholarly work. They wrote a lot and began to take some real pride in the work. It was cool. Sure there will always be those who don't do what they are supposed to do. Those who don't have faith in the process and effectively disengage themselves from the class. But the majority, I would say, did follow along with the process and reaped the benefits.
The downside for me as a teacher was the workload. While portfolio grading allowed me to suspend actual grading until the portfolios came in, once they did come, I was buried. This was tough but seeing the results was worth it. I'm convinced that portfolio assessment is best for the students--especially in a writing course--even if it can get a bit overwhelming for the teacher.
