Writing, reflecting and assessing in the English classroom: The role of the portfolio in knowledge construction

This qualitative study carried out an extensive investigation into the role of the portfolio in a secondary English classroom in a suburban school district. Students kept a portfolio that documented their reflections and self-assessments on the quality of their work as well as the influence of the portfolio in shaping their growing understanding of writing. As both teacher and researcher, I sought to learn how the portfolio might be best employed. This year long study argues that a portfolio can be a powerful educational tool for students. By encouraging students to revisit their work, evaluate their abilities, and set goals for future writing activities, portfolios foster systematic self-monitoring largely absent from students\u27 educational experiences. When given the opportunity to judge their work, students often reveal a level of interest and awareness that could easily go untapped in a writing program that fails to employ a portfolio. Participants in the study showed a strong resistance toward using the portfolio to evaluate performance or judge growth. They saw the portfolio\u27s major asset to be its ability to showcase their emerging interests and talents as writers. This discovery highlights a potential conflict in the role of the portfolio: if educators insist on employing it primarily as an evaluative tool, the portfolio\u27s capacity to motivate students\u27 performance and encourage risk taking could be undermined. The study examines the difficulties teachers face in determining the exact role the portfolio should play in the classroom and the importance of establishing its purpose clearly and quickly. Because the students who participated in this study were members of a 12th grade Advanced Placement English course, their observations and comments are noteworthy for what they reveal about previous school writing experiences and for what they suggest about the future role of the portfolio in relationship to Advanced Placement testing. Students strongly urge the use of a portfolio in conjunction with a diverse writing program that honors their individuality and desire to write creatively. If the portfolio is to be used for evaluative purpose, students claim its most potent use would come in lieu of the Advanced Placement test