Additional Tips for Successful Portfolio Teaching

Best practices in composition and rhetoric also suggest several other strategies that may help students build strong portfolios.

Introduce portfolios early in the course, preferably on the first day. Let students know their individual papers will not receive grades. At the same time, describe the other varied kinds of feedback that they will receive on their writing and that they will give each other.

Hold conversations about grading and assessment in relation to writing. Provide clear guidelines about your own values. If you choose, these can be developed collaboratively as class values.

Provide specific, timely, and meaningful feedback that engages with students’ ideas.

Allow time for reflection in-class throughout the semester.

Schedule conference time to help students review their work well in advance of the portfolio due date. (This is built into the calendar of the model syllabus.)

Stress the importance of the cover letter or writer’s memo and its role in helping others read the portfolio.

Encourage students to take advantage of the deferred grading in the portfolio system.