Assignment: First Year Writing Digital Portfolio
Platform: Digication
Audience: Classmates, Michael, Writing Program and University Administrators
Due Date: Final Exam Week
— Section #314: Tuesday 6/5, 8:45-11:00 a.m.
— Section #315: Tuesday 6/5, 11:45 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
Reflection
Reflection refers to the iterative process that we engage in when we want to look back at some activity or decision we’ve made, to think about what we’ve learned from it, and how we might use it in the future. For example, our WRD104 digital portfolios serve as a dot-connecting mechanism for everything you’ve done in this class: writing, reading, thinking, discussing, planning, drafting, and proofreading. Reflection is a powerful tool in teaching and learning and outside of academics, reflecting is a common tool among professionals and organizations as a way to establish values, goals, and future actions:
- What did I do?
- What was significant about what I did?
- Did I meet my goals?
- When have I done this kind of work before? Where could I use this again?
- Do I see any patterns or relationships in what I did?
- How well did I do? What worked? What do I need to improve?
- What should I do next? What’s my plan?
Your Writing Portfolio
A cornerstone of the First Year Writing Program’s pedagogy, the student writing portfolio provides the opportunity for you to demonstrate the degree to which you have achieved the program’s learning outcomes. Writing portfolios are required of every student in every FYW course and necessitate that you keep track of your work (collection), take responsibility for selecting pieces of your writing that represent your achievements (selection), and reflect on your own work in the course (reflection).
First-Year Writing Digital Portfolio Requirements
- A Reflective Essay that introduces your work to your peers, your instructor, and writing-program administrators: 750-1250 words
- Samples of your work that support as evidence your learning outcomes:
- rhetorical knowledge
- critical thinking, reading, and writing
- processes
- knowledge of convention
The design and composition of your digital portfolio draw on the very same strategies and outcomes that you’ve been practicing in your WRD first-year writing course: readers will attribute credibility and authority to you when your design and arrangement are done with care; thoughtfully integrated examples of your work will support your reflective essay’s main points; and you will get practice in articulating and presenting your academic and professional identities.
Be sure to review the course calendar this week, where I have collected resources for your portfolio’s design, development, and presentation, especially:
Portfolio workshop
Option #1: WRD Learning Outcomes-based Digital Portfolio
Option #2: WRD Curated Digital Portfolio
UCWbL: Designing Digital Portfolios
WRD Resources, especially formatting
- Organizing principles
- Providing links — both figuratively and literally
- Formatting
- Professional presentation
- Scoring Guide (PDF)