The Contents of a Portfolio

The following will be work samples shared by students to showcase their skills:

• Formal Writing
• Informal Writing
• Formal Speaking
• Informal Speaking

Students will post their purpose for creating a portfolio, their bio, their work samples and their reflection of their experience. There will be comments from peers and others and an evaluation from the teacher for each work sample.

The Informal Writing: these writing examples will be an informal writing task. Students will have 10 minutes to read a prompt and write their responses. Examples may include writing an email message, a letter, a journal entry, or a postcard.

The Formal Writing: these writing example will reflect an integration of listening, reading, and writing (an example of the interpretive and presentational modes) skills. Students will be required to read two documents, listen to a related source/recording, and respond to a written prompt. All sources, both written and aural, will be authentic -- either in their original format or re-recorded. Students will be encouraged to make reference to and cite all of the sources. Students will have 7 minutes to read the printed sources and then will listen to a stimulus of approximately 3 minutes. After listening to the prompt, students will have 5 minutes to plan their responses and 40 minutes to write their essays. The total time allotted for this section will be approximately 55 minutes.

The Informal Speaking: There will be a conversation role-play situation (an example of the interpersonal mode). Students will be asked to interact with a recorded conversation. There will be five or six opportunities for the students to answer. Each response will be 20 seconds in length. Students will have time to read an outline of the simulated conversation and the instructions before participating in the simulated conversation.

The Formal Speaking: these will be an example of the interpretive and presentational mode. It integrates reading, listening, and speaking skills. Students need to give an oral presentation in a formal or academic setting. They will be asked to read one document and listen to a recording, after which they will have two minutes to prepare for the presentation and two minutes to answer the question related to the sources. Students will be encouraged to make reference to and cite all sources.