Teaching Writing
Dr. Meehan
Final Portfolio
Mediating Our Writing
Overview:
This final project brings together our final focus in the course on new technologies and media of writing with our beginning focus on the practice and process of becoming a writer. The writing portfolio is a place where writers have an opportunity to show and see their development as a writer. In that sense, it is a place where we writers mediate our identities as writers: this written work represents who I am as a writer and where I have come from, much as photographs mediate and marks our identities as people who grow and change. In taking advantage of digital forms of writing and publishing our portfolios, we simply take this sense of mediation a step or two further.
Assignment:
You will produce a digital portfolio of your work in this course and (using FrontPage) publish the portfolio to your Morningside web space. [For a tutorial on using making a web page at Morningside College, connect here: http://www.morningside.edu/morningside/help/students/studentwebs.htm]
Your portfolio will include the following documents or exhibits of your work and writing:
[1]Some sort of introduction/course home page: this will orient your reader (including me), provide the links to the parts of your portfolio, and offer a brief introduction and self-reflection on the work that this portfolio represents. What are we about to see, how do you view this work, what are some key experiences from the course that you feel your work represents? [1-2 pages]
[2]Service Learning Section. This is where you will publish the final versions of the required written components of your service learning project: your self-reflection, one lesson plan from the project, one journal entry, and one further reading summary (see description of the Service Learning project).
[3]Writing Projects. Publish final versions of your 2 writing projects from the course, the autobiography and the curriculum project.
[4]Revision. Select one of the 2 writing projects for revision and further development. In addition to focusing on developing the writing based on your sense of where you could go further and from response from peers and from me, consider ways that your remediation of the writing in digital format might enhance the original. That is, explore the multi-media (and perhaps hypertextual) aspects of writing. Let me be clear: for this component of the portfolio, I will be evaluating your revision choices; your technology choices (how you digitally remediate the original writing) are optional—though such choices could very well help you to improve the piece in a way that it needs.
For the piece you choose to revise, provide a link (or copy) of the original version so that I can look at both.
Assessment:
The service learning component has its own rubric, already provided [reminder that the whole of the service project is worth 10% of your grade]. The rest of your portfolio will be evaluated in this way [and will be worth 10% of your final grade]:
Introduction [10 points]
Thoughtfulness and effectiveness of your introduction—how well it sets up your portfolio, reflects on what your portfolio represents in terms of your experiences and learning from the course
Writing projects [10 points]
Completeness: both projects included in final form, with the revised piece including both original and revised versions.
Revision [20 points]
Your revision choices: the progress and development reflected in your revision
Presentation [10 points]
The effectiveness of the portfolio overall, including the format—how well it mediates your identity as a writer, as related to this course. This does not mean that I am grading you on your artistic or technological skills. However, writing is multi-media, has form and shape, so the effectiveness of your portfolio can be enhanced by visual and digital tools.
Note regarding the use of the web as a publication format for this project: This course does not require specific skills in web publishing—nor does it evaluate you in those skills. You can compile and develop a strong digital portfolio using word processing (which is required for this course) and, should you have problems using the College web space, or choose not to use it, turn in your portfolio to me via Blackboard without losing points.
Publication:
You will present your final portfolio to me during the final exam period. You will sign up for a conference time and will need to be prepared to discuss what your portfolio represents: that is, answer questions about your learning, your experiences in the course as a writing mentor, and your identity as a writer at this point in your career.
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