We will be organizing work into project portfolios. You are responsible for collecting all of your work this semester on OneDrive (we will discuss organization in class). The evidence you collect will then be used in the Reflective Overview you will write. In the Reflective Overview you will reflect on the first half, and full, semester, considering how you have met the threshold concepts and learning outcomes at both timeframes. Your portfolios will be submitted to Blackboard. Portfolio grades will depend on the quality and breadth of the evidence, reflection, and final project. Evidence must represent the full scope of work on the assignment; in other words, readers of the overview will recognize that you have been engaged with all parts of the assignment over time, as part of the process. In addition, the Reflective Overview must be the result of multiple drafts, representing thoughtful revision and careful editing and proofreading.

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What is a Portfolio?

We define a portfolio as a collection of work purposefully selected and intentionally assembled by a learner. The one piece of writing that is required in a portfolio is an extensive reflective overview, which is a piece of writing that presents the portfolio contents to readers and that explains why particular contents were chosen and what they are meant to show. With the portfolio and the reflective overview that accompanies it, you are able to show and explain a more complete representation of the work you accomplished and the learning it represents.

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Additionally, the process of collecting, selecting, and reflecting—what we call the “portfolio process”—invites you to be more active in your learning. And with the reflective overview, you take responsibility for helping your instructor (and other evaluators) recognize how you have engaged with the course and how you have expanded your learning. Your choice of evidence helps with our evaluation, and your reflective overview (a central part of the portfolio) helps us understand what you include as evidence and why you include it. In other words, the portfolio gives us a broader and deeper view of your performance and learning than is possible with single tests or with single pieces of writing.

Finally, and perhaps most important, using the portfolio process engages you in the kinds of higher-order, active thinking that promotes deeper, long-term learning. Portfolios emphasize reflective thinking (metacognition) and "learning how to learn," the kinds of skills your future will require. Your success as a professional (and as a citizen) will depend on your being able to use your knowledge and skills to address unique challenges, to work independently and as a member of a team, to be flexible, and to be more responsible for your success.

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The Reflective Overview

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

Because the RO is an important piece of writing—it is the first thing your instructor will read, 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.

Without a reflective overview, a portfolio is nothing more than a collection of artifacts, and readers of the portfolio are forced (free) 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.

You are responsible for selecting evidence that you think best demonstrates your performance, your learning, your development of specific skills and knowledge; and you are responsible for helping portfolio-readers understand your choices, which you will discuss in the RO.

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What will my Portfolio include?

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An effective portfolio will most likely not include “everything” you do for that part of the course. One of the principles of portfolio assessment is that the learner takes an active role in choosing work to include (though your instructor may stipulate that you include certain items). In other words, you are responsible for selecting evidence that you think best demonstrates your performance, your learning, your development of specific skills and knowledge; you are responsible for helping portfolio-readers understand your choices (in the reflective overview).

For many students, portfolios are problematic. Your instructor will not prescribe "the" way to assemble a portfolio. Nor will she or he provide a checklist of materials to include. Students have no one formula to follow, nor can they wait until the night before it is due to assemble and complete a portfolio that will earn a satisfactory grade. In other words, for many students, the portfolio prevents them from using the same methods in college that they used to succeed in high school. The portfolio process requires you to be an active learner, to value deep learning, to engage in the kinds of intellectual work that you haven’t been asked to do before now.

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The Checklist

-Step 1: Pick one Learning Outcome from our Course Information page.
-Step 2: Explain the Learning Outcome in your own words.
-Step 3: Pick a couple of pieces of evidence (work) you have done for Comp/History/any other class. 

• How does it show that you have worked towards this outcome?

-Step 4: Pick one Habit of Mind from the Course Information page.

• How does the HoM support the outcome and piece of evidence you picked?

-Step 5: Pick one Key Term from the Course Information page.

• How does the Key Term support the outcome and piece of evidence you picked?

-Step 6: How does this explanation connect to a reading from NWWK and the Framework for Information Literacy. 

• Connect to specific areas in the text(s) and use textual evidence.