The Reflective Overview (RO) is the most important piece of writing you will do for a portfolio.

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The RO invites you (some might say "challenges you") to help your instructor(s) understand how to evaluate / think about / "read" the materials in your portfolio. When you think of the RO in this way, it is also your opportunity to explain what you might not have done, or how you fulfilled expectations in ways that are different from the norm.

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Because the RO is an important piece of writing—it is the first thing your instructor will read before examining the contents of your portfolio, expecting the RO to help her or him make sense of all the other work you did—you will want to produce more than one draft, sharing with classmates so you can consider revisions to make this piece more effective.

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Without a reflective overview, a portfolio is nothing more than a collection of artifacts, and readers of the portfolio are forced to make sense of these artifacts as they see fit. With the overview, the writer takes control of her or his portfolio, helping readers understand the portfolio in the ways that the writer intends it to be understood.

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Suggestions: 

These are not required questions as part of a template, but merely questions designed to help you think about your work:

• What was the assignment and the assignment requirements?

• What did you learn from this assignment and how?

• How has your writing improved as a result of completing this assignment?

• How have your information literacy skills improved as a result of completing this assignment?

• How has this assignment or set of assignments changed your understanding/beliefs about writing?

• What insight did you achieve from reflecting on this writing? 

• How can you apply this learning in your other classes or in your future career. 

• How do you think you can improve in this area, for this particular Student Learning Outcome, if you don’t feel you have yet mastered it? What can you do to move towards mastery?

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In each section when discussing the SLO, state whether or not you have achieved it, offer evidence to support your claim, and explain clearly how your evidence serves as evidence, and connect it back to what you have learned from the experience. 

• I believe I have achieved SLOx...

• In support of this claim, I offer the following evidence...

• This is serves as evidence because....

• I have learned that....

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In Short...

This reflective overview will help you to connect the writing, reading, and research you are doing with the learning goals for the course. The reflective overview will be an extensive piece of writing introducing your portfolio and will include ample and appropriate evidence. Your reflective overview will show and tell how the materials you have included have broadened your understanding of writing, and the extent to which you have achieved the learning goals for English 1302. 

 

In short, the purpose of this reflective overview is for you to demonstrate that you have mastered, or are on your way towards mastering, the student learning outcomes, habits of mind, Naming What We Know threshold concepts, and information literacy threshold concepts.