Up Next in ENGL 1500/2500: Portfolio Unit

As the term draws to a close, it becomes increasingly important for students to look back and evaluate their work and to recognize how they have progressed throughout the process. The portfolio unit guides students to make sense of their own learning journeys and to demonstrate their development through concrete examples. Bolatito Abolade shares the following activity to help students approach this process with greater awareness.

Receipts of Growth: Documenting Your Communication Journey

Students reflect on their growth as communicators across the semester by creating a portfolio that combines written reflection with visual evidence of their learning journey to demonstrate their growth process.

Purpose of the Activity:

Students will be able to:

• Look back and evaluate learning and skills practiced throughout the semester
• Identify where they started, what challenged them, and how they progressed
• Reflect on their own thought processes
• Emphasize the value of the writing process
• Connect all key assignments in a meaningful capstone experience

Materials or Resources Needed

• The portfolio assignment description on Canvas
• Students’ past assignments and drafts from the semester (rhetorical analysis, research paper, multimodal project, peer reviews, reflections, Canvas discussion posts, and class activities)
• Their introductory reflection and goal-setting activity (if any)
• Course learning objectives
• Google Doc or another way for students to share drafts
• 2–3 sample portfolios from past students (with permission)

Description of the Activity:

Day 1: Introduction and In-Class Drafting

1. Open the lesson by asking students to pull up their introductory reflection and goal-setting activity from the beginning of the semester. Give them time to read it silently. Then ask: “Does this sound like you now? What has changed?” Let two or three students share briefly. This activity helps them to immediately see that growth has happened, even when they might not notice.
2. Walk through the portfolio assignment together and ask 1-2 students to explain their understanding. Then, emphasize that this is not a summary of their work but a story of how they grew. Tell them: “You are the main character, and your assignments are the evidence of that growth.”
3. Share the sample portfolios from past students. Project them on the screen and point out three or four specific things to notice, like the following:
   • how the student used subtopics to organize their writing
   • how they included a screenshot or excerpt to show “before and after,”
   • how they wrote in paragraphs rather than bullet points, and explain clearly what they now do differently to achieve the growth.
     Ask: “What makes this example feel specific and real, rather than vague?” Hearing the answer from classmates often sticks better than hearing it from the instructor.
4. Review the course learning objectives together. Read each objective aloud, one by one, and have students silently rate themselves on a scale of 100 based on how confident they are in their ability to provide evidence for it. This activity helps students identify which areas to focus on in their portfolio.
5. Give students the remaining class time to begin drafting. Provide a structure for the introduction which includes:
6. Ask students to open a new document and start drafting. They can start with the introduction, then continue with the section that feels most natural; it does not have to be written in order at first. Remind them to open their past assignments in other tabs so they can pull in specific examples, quotes from their own writing, or screenshots as they draft. Circulate the room, answer questions one-on-one, and encourage any student who is staring at a blank screen to start with: “What is one thing you know you got better at this semester? Write that down first.”
   • Information about yourself (what is your name?)
   • What were your goals this semester? (This can be from the goal-setting assignment)
   • What is your major (or what are you interested in)? and
   • A main focus to guide your audience (what does this portfolio as a whole demonstrate about you as a communicator?).

Day 2: Peer Review

1. Ask students how many of them have more than three paragraphs. Then ask, “What question do you have as you work on your draft?” Address their questions as a whole class. This will benefit everyone and give students about 15 minutes to continue working on their drafts and reorganize them to make peer review easier.
2. Before peer review, give them a brief orientation on what to focus on. The goal of peer review here is clarity of explanation. Ask reviewers to focus on two questions: “Can you see evidence or an example?” “How are they positioned to demonstrate growth?” The reviewer should leave a comment on any unclear sections and point out any areas that are not clearly explained.
3. Pair students up and have them exchange drafts. Give them 7 to 12 minutes to read and write comments. Encourage written feedback in the margins.
4. Bring pairs together to talk through their feedback face-to-face. Give them 2 minutes per person. Remind the writer to listen first, ask clarifying questions, and decide what to revise on their own time.
5. Before class ends, ask each student to write down one specific revision they plan to make based on the feedback they received. This reflection will build accountability and help them leave with a clear next action.
6. Remind students of the portfolio due date and the Finals Week day and time for the section.

Potential Adaptations

• If you have more time, peer review can be done in groups of three, with each person receiving feedback from two peers.
• For students who struggle to identify growth, you can offer a simple scaffolding prompt: “Find one sentence from your earliest assignment this semester and one sentence from your most recent one. Put them side by side. What do you notice?” Using this comparison can aid reflection more quickly than open-ended questions.
• For classes where students did not submit a goal-setting activity at the start of the semester, you can substitute a brief in-class writing prompt at the start of Day 1: “In five minutes, write about how you felt about writing, speaking, or designing before this class started.” They can use this as a starting point for reflection, even without a prior goal- setting activity.