Portfolio

 Exercise 5: “Worldview Screen” — Portfolio Reflection

  • due Sat­ur­day 12-Dec; 5 points
  • 500 words (min­i­mum; 600 max); post doc in D2L
    –or– record screen­cast video, show­ing and dis­cussing work (from script, not impromptu)
  • Bonus:  con­vert your Word­Press site into a sta­tic port­fo­lio, to keep online (and per­haps use?) beyond the course. Instruc­tions below.

 

»Prompt:

Con­sid­er­ing the class goals (see syl­labus pages 3–6) and project/unit objec­tives, dis­cuss your course work and out­comes: both what you’ve learned and how you’ve learned, review­ing your com­po­si­tion port­fo­lio—skills, process, assess­ment, and insights.

These are the most impor­tant points to dis­cuss, through­out the entire doc­u­ment; avoid summary/descrip­tion (along with com­men­tary about assign­ments them­selves) in favor of spe­cific reflec­tive points about your com­po­si­tions and learn­ing outcomes.

  • Pro­tip: review the course goals and the assign­ment objec­tives first; good to ref­er­ence these specif­i­cally.
    For instance, you could arrange the dis­cus­sion top­i­cally by skills/outcomes, rather than by each project; then dis­cuss spe­cific work to illus­trate. Link to projects and exer­cises, and per­haps include screen­cap­ture images for even greater effect/efficiency. (This is par­tic­u­larly impor­tant if cre­at­ing a web portfolio)
     
    Or, if review­ing your port­fo­lio in sequence, try rec­og­niz­ing and artic­u­lat­ing as a pro­gres­sion: explor­ing, inquir­ing, acquir­ing, com­pos­ing sim­i­lar top­ics in var­i­ous areas and rhetor­i­cal sit­u­a­tions (e.g. audi­ence and pur­pose, quite dis­tinct in all 3 units). Avoid sum­ma­riz­ing the semes­ter by project sim­ply; this approach would not be a “port­fo­lio reflec­tion,” think­ing back on all your skills and outcomes.
     
  • Although partly “self-assessment,” this is not the occa­sion to discuss/dispute/defend assign­ment assess­ments (con­tact GH directly); instead, the entire reflec­tion should be pos­i­tive. Dis­cuss what and how you’ve learned; what and how you’ve com­posed (all projects & exer­cises); your spe­cific skills (both refined/improved and newly acquired/developed), com­pos­ing strategies/process, and outcomes—especially look­ing ahead.
    Be sure to note at least one point about this, prospec­tive “take-away” and future use/application/benefits (a good con­clud­ing point, sen­tence or two).
     
  • Note: If you have revised a project, impor­tant to ref­er­ence your revi­sion memo and the addi­tional outcomes/benefits of that process. (While you can include the memo dis­cus­sion, you might pre­fer post­ing that separately.)

The main goal of the Port­fo­lio Reflec­tion is new insights and self-awareness, less about content/material and more about your skills of crit­i­cal think­ing, rhetoric, and com­po­si­tion. More per­sonal reflec­tion than “memo to instruc­tor” —this is gen­er­ated by con­sid­er­ing thought­fully and dis­cussing specif­i­cally your work this term (much like the “Screen Self Por­trait” function/benefit, a com­pos­ite image to think with).
The para­me­ters are fairly open in this regard, with the main caveats being not to summarize/describe the sequence of work (redun­dant; maybe review/list first before writ­ing); nor to dis­cuss content/topics exclu­sively or to a great extent (points about this can be men­tioned in con­text, but should not be main focus); nor to com­ment upon class com­po­nents (per­sonal per­cep­tions, opin­ions, etc.) in unpro­duc­tive way.

  • These caveats are espe­cially impor­tant for the screen­cast option: please pre­pare ideas (lists, out­comes, exam­ples, insights) prior to record­ing, to dis­cuss and show work effi­ciently (rather than impromptu commentary)

Over­all, the reflec­tion should be a pro­duc­tive review and dis­cus­sion for you per­son­ally, as a con­clu­sion to class: look­ing back on your learn­ing and com­po­si­tion out­comes, espe­cially for future rhetoric and writ­ing (whether direct appli­ca­tion or indirect/subtle benefit).

 

»Cri­te­ria (from syl­labus):

Credit is assigned for (1) sub­mit­ting on-time & includ­ing all required elements;
(2) demon­strat­ing atten­tion to class top­ics, con­tent knowl­edge, and crit­i­cal think­ing, par­tic­u­larly by describ­ing insights and connections;
(3) pro­vid­ing thought­ful and rel­e­vant responses to prompts, through spe­cial­ized discourse;
(4) with spe­cific exam­ples from per­sonal knowl­edge and/or respec­tive readings,
(5) while extend­ing rhetor­i­cal knowl­edge and mas­tery of writ­ing con­ven­tions, prac­tic­ing effi­cient prose (i.e. min­i­miz­ing /avoiding sum­mary, rep­e­ti­tion, digres­sion, and unnec­es­sary discussion).

 

 

» Optional: con­vert­ing Word­Press site into a sta­tic portfolio

 
Refor­mat Site Layout: 

  • Sta­tic Home Page — WP Guide
     
    *cre­ate new front/home page
    — add links to projects as Port­fo­lio (or on its own page)?
     
    — add images/screenshots of projects to Port­fo­lio page
     
    ** remem­ber to cre­ate an “Entries” page (leave blank!) in order to access blog posts
     
  • Cre­ate / Update Cus­tom Menu — WP Guide
     
    — group links con­sid­er­ing new/different audience? 
  • Update About Page
     
  • Add / Update Wid­gets
    — for exam­ple, Tags & Cat­e­gories for Blog Entries
     
  • Change Theme? Update Title?