In Class/OutClassed: Instructions for Preparing Your Final Web Portfolio

In this web portfolio, due by 12:30 on Friday, December 16,  we are asking you to reflect on the written and spoken work you have done for this course. This process invites you to chronicle what has happened in your evolution both as a writer and a speaker in class, and to contribute to and assist us with the evaluation of your work. So--

* Prepare a final performance for the class: join with several other students to prepare a 10-15 minute presentation reflecting on your experiences over the semester, encouraging, in a provocative and entertaining way, further exploration on the part of others in the class.

* Write up a description of your final performance in the class, and post it on-line.  This can take one of various forms: it might be the script you used for that performance, a description of what you were doing in it, or of what happened during it (anything that surprised you?). One of you can post the script; each of the others in the group should add a comment or explanation or further reflections.

* Complete your final expanded-and-revised paper for the course.

* Review everything else you’ve already written for this class: all your papers, and our comments on them, as well as copies of your postings in the course forum. (All the posts and comments you've put up on Serendip have already been electronically collected on one page. To see it, login and click on "My Portfolio.") Ruminate for a while on what you’re noticing as you review your whole semester's work.

* Then write a short (2-3 pp.) essay tracing where you were when we began this process, where you are now, and what’s been happening in between. How have you been learning? What have you been learning? Where do you think that the edges of your learning now lie?

Be specific and descriptive, but also evaluative:
** Review the checklist.

** Review your participation in our group work: how present-and-contributing have you been in our discussions, both large and small? What role have you assumed in our group dynamics, both in-class and on-line? In what ways have you been contributing to the learning of others?

** Re-consider your reading for the course: What were your joys-and-pleasures? What were your challenges? What were the ways that you grew as a reader? Where are your learning edges as a reader?

** Review also your written work: how much effort have you put into the web postings and each of your essays? What can you say about the quality of these productions? What have you learned about your writing and thinking processes in this class? Where have you "moved"?

* By 12:30 on Friday, December 16,
--complete the checklist and submit it on-line (this will remain private = readable only by Anne and Jody).
--e-mail to Anne or Jody both
* your revised and expanded final paper
* and your self-evaluative essay.

In our responses, we'll be assigning grades that reflect your class participation, the quality of your reading and written work, and the general evolution of your education. Your self-evaluation will assist us with our own, as we reflect on your engagement in the course. We very much look forward to hearing what you have to say about this whole process.

Thanks for joining us in the exploratory journey into class, and beyond it, that we've taken together this semester.

We've enjoyed it very much, and learned a lot from each of you--
Anne & Jody