Portfolio Info

E309M: Computers and Writing
Midterm Portfolio due 3/26/95
Final Portfolio due during the final exam

Portfolios

Your portfolio should include three main things:

Your self-evaluation, including a well-supported argument for the grade you think you deserve;

Hard copies of written work you've generated in this class, including notes, drafts, research materials, weekly assignments, responses, revisions, etc;

Soft copy of electronic work to date as well as your self-evaluation in my teacher folder under "Portfolios."

As you prepare to write your self-evaluation, review our policy statement and note that the minimum requirements for passing this course are satisfactory attendance, substantial course participation and on-time work. Remember especially our two explicit sets of criteria for evaluating your learning and your work in this course (given to you on the second day of class). The first is a list of the five dimensions of learning across which you need to make progress in order to excel in E309M Individually, you should expect to make progress across five dimensions:

Confidence and independence: in your own reading, writing, and thinking abilities.

Specific skills and strategies: involved in composing and communicating effectively, from concept to organization to polishing grammar and correctness, and including technological skills for computer communication.

Content Knowledge: gained about new technologies, strategies of argumentation, research methods, the topics you write about, organizing and presenting your ideas to others, and so on.

Use of your own prior and emerging experience: the ability to draw on your own experience and connect it to your work

Reflectiveness: reflecting about your own learning process, as well as developing a more analytical approach to reading, writing, and communication.

The second is a list of course goals, which you may think of as the specific "skills and strategies" and "content knowledge" you're striving to acquire in this course. In this course you will learn how to:

Improve writing skills
Become comfortable with technology and learn to use it in the context of the class as well as be able to analyze it outside of the class frame.
Learn to research and use a wide variety of internet search engines to acquire information and present it effectively.
.Learn to evaluate the nature of such information and its relative value. Taking apart the information to evaluate its source and worth is an important task in the on-line world.
Rhetorically analyze and construct arguments and practice the strategies suggested by Anderson's Free/Style to write open-minded, well constructed and fluid arguments.
Learn that collaboration is not collusion and that multimedia often requires multiperspectives and group work.
Learn to proofread and peer edit effectively.

All four strands will be woven throughout our work together.
Look back at the observations you've jotted down about your learning and your work in our class. Look back, too, at my comments and your classmates' regarding your responses, papers, ICs, e-mail, etc. Use these observations and comments, along with excerpts from your own work, to support your claim about the quality of your learning and your work in E309M.

What I Will Expect From You

Either a hard copy or soft copy portfolio with your self-evaluation and a neat compilation of your work to date. I'll look for thoroughness and thoughtfulness, and I'll expect your self-evaluation to be reasonable and well-supported.

What You Can Expect From Me . . .
On the Midterm Portfolio
A response with comments to help you think about your goals for upcoming activities, plus an estimate of what your course grade would be if the class ended at this point.

On the Final Portfolio
Careful evaluation of your argument for the grade you deserve. I'll consider your argument persuasive and effective if the evidence you present in your portfolio supports the claims you make about the quality of your work and your learning this semester. I will, of course, compare the evidence you present with the observations of your work and learning that I've made all semester, and (straight from the policy statement) "all reasonable and well-supported grade claims will be honored."

This portfolio assessment is modeled on Dr. Syverson's use of portfolios in her courses. For more information check our her 309M page.

However, note that our dimensions are the same, but our goals differ (after all we teach different courses).