This is a basic template for the course portfolios I require my students to compose. Requirements will likely shift and evolve from class to class and from year to year.
Title Page
Give your portfolio a title that is fun, puzzling, illuminating, or jazzy (or all of those). Also on your title page include all vital information such as: your name, the name of your professor, the name and number of the course, the date on which you submit the portfolio, and whatever else seems important or useful for the Title Page.
Table of Contents (TOC)
Provide a simple Table of Contents (TOC) that lists the major sections of your portfolio as well as the sub-sections. For example, your TOC should list which Response Journal entries are included (and which you skipped, if any) and should let the reader know what process documentation is included with the revised project(s) in the portfolio.
[Note: In an electronic portfolio, the Title Page and Table of Contents should comprise a single document.]
Preface or Reflective Letter
The Preface or Reflective Letter (addressed to the reader[s] of your portfolio) can serve two (or more) important and distinct purposes. First, it gives you the opportunity to reflect on what you have learned and written in this course. I firmly believe that some of the best learning you may do in our course can happen as you look over your coursework in its entirety and work to articulate what you learned, where you struggled, surprises you encountered, precious resources you unearthed, who supported and guided you, and other interesting observations about your work. Second, the Preface or Reflective Letter is a powerful rhetorical performance by which you, the author, shape your readers’ experience of the texts that make up your portfolio. The most obvious way to think about this act of guiding and shaping is to think in terms of trying to get your professor to give you the grade you think you’ve earned, and that is a legitimate goal for the Preface/Letter. Other goals might be to highlight the work you like best, provide information not evident in the portfolio contents, provoke your readers to critical reflection, or add to the perspectives offered in the rest of the portfolio contents.
These are my suggestions for your Preface or Reflective Letter (or Introduction, or Prologue, etc.). Ultimately, you should write whatever you think will best serve your goals in creating and presenting the portfolio. Hopefully, you will create new knowledge for yourself and your readers when you write this section of your portfolio.
Aim for between 750 and 1000 words (3-4 pages typed and double-spaced) for your Portfolio Preface.
Response Journal
Include your entire Response Journal. Label each entry clearly with your name, the date of composition, what you are responding to in that entry, and a title for the entry. If you have revised any entries since my last reading/evaluation, alert me to those changes so I can give them my attention. One good way to alert me is to put a star or asterisk next to the Table of Contents entry for each revised journal entry. Also please put the new or revised journal entry material in italics to make it easy to identify.
Major Research/Writing Project(s)
For your major written project(s), include:
- your final draft and at least one substantial earlier draft, as well as (optionally) any important outlines, notes, maps, plans, etc. Clearly date and otherwise identify where each item occurred in your writing process
- all other documentation of your writing processes, including: a process memo, all responses you received from your peers, and all responses you received from your professor
- (see Documenting Your Writing Process)