Wednesday, November 9

I liked the idea that Hesse says, “The grade reflects an overall assessment of the writer’s ability to produce varied kinds of text, not an average of grades on individual papers”(407). By reading and examining a portfolio as a whole product, I think teachers can assess the writer’s writing skillful ability more accurately. It may not easy to determine if the writer has all the writing abilities to manage in other undergraduate courses by reading just one paper, because the writing requires quite a few skills including reading critically, analyzing texts, integrating quotations, etc.

Also, I liked the idea of having the set of standards for assessing portfolios and sharing it with students, and showing what each graded portfolio looks like. By doing this, students will know what exactly they should do, and teachers can explain explicitly what the student is missing in their paper when they give feedback to students.

What I found most practical in the reading was the idea of determining a grade of a portfolio based on the writer’s skillful ability to perform in a variety of rhetorical situations. As Hesse says, “’A’ portfolios suggest that the writer will be able to adroitly handle nearly any task an undergraduate student writer might encounter in both academic and public forums,” students in English 101 at the University of Idaho need to be prepared to handle tasks both in English 102 and other courses that require writing and reading (408). I believe this way of grading if they pass or fail should be priority to consider.

Also, I think the reflective introduction should be used making a judgement, as Hesse suggests. Through the reflective paper, teachers can see how much and what the writers developed in English 101, and the writer’s ability to reflect his or her writing analytically and critically. I think reflecting their own writing will enhance their writing abilities, the good abilities can be transformed to other fields where writing tasks are required.

Although I think having all of the criteria of portfolios, such as quality of thought, material integration and personal experience connection, seems very practical and useful, I found skeptical measuring their revising skills through their portfolios. I am not sure how teachers could assess students’ revising skills by reading their revised versions of essays. I was wondering how teachers can see their process of writing/revising if the students are not your students (which will be happening in our English 101 course when students’ portfolios are read by other instructors from the English department in a committee).