43.401 History Writing & Community
UML, Fall 2013
Guidelines for the Final Portfolio
The Final Portfolio shows off your learning in this course. It represents the height of your achievement this semester, the result of lots of hard work and many hours of revision. You should be proud of your work and should take some time to present this material to me carefully.
Here's what the portfolio must include:
1)A formal, typed, business letter addressed to me that explains what you have done and why it matters (see below for more details). Use this address:
Prof. Christopher Carlsmith
Dept. of History
850 Broadway Street
Lowell, MA 01854
2)Final version(s) of your project component(s): pamphlets, exhibit captions, video essay, finding aids, library catalog, graphic organizer, grant proposal, oral history, etc. If your work is multi-media or digital, I need the work in a form that I can assess (burn a DVD or CD or send me a link to a webpage, etc.) . If the work cannot be exhibited/included in the Final Portfolio, include a paragraph explaining what the project component was/is. Whatever form your work takes, just make sure that it is accessible so I can begin grading immediately.
3)The Project Proposal from late September or early October, in which you outlined your plans for the semester, including the Organizational Profile, Needs Assessment, Project Components, and Assignment Schedule. This should be the “contract’ that you, your community partner, and I agreed upon. Some of you may have skipped this step early in the semester; you will have to reconstruct it as best you can.
4)The revised Reflective Essay (4-5 pp. double-spaced, 12 pt. Times, 1” margins): review your journals and think back to all that you have done and learned this semester and create a deeply reflective narrative essay about your experience. If you have been doing a good job of integrating deep reflection into your journals, this essay should be relatively straightforward. If you have just been summarizing events this assignment may be more challenging. For this narrative essay you will tell the story of your learning, sharing highlights of the semester’s action but also reflecting along the way on its meaning to you academically, professionally, and personally. I do not want a mere rehashing of chronological events. Rather, I want to see you shape your narrative so as to highlight patterns, reveal challenges, and demonstrate growth. You have already written a draft of this, and received extensive feedback from me on this component.
5)If you are willing to let me cite your work in any future writing about service-learning that I may try to publish, please complete the attached subject release and turn this in with your portfolio. This step is completely optional and will not impact your grade. It is helpful for me to be able to cite specific examples of student learning and reflection in an article (no full names are ever used), but I will not discuss your work without your express written permission. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!
Directions:
Cover Letter:
The cover letter represents an opportunity to explain what you did this semester, to summarize its importance, and to analyze the quality of your work. That analysis includes the opportunity to grade your own project components. When deciding what to write in this letter, begin by re-reading the syllabus and course description. How well do you think you have reached the goals and objectives that the University, the History Department, and I have set for this course? Were some goals/objectives more difficult than others? In what areas did you achieve demonstrable growth? What areas need further attention? (By the way, though I always welcome suggestions for the class, the portfolio is not the place for critiquing the course. The portfolio is about your performance. Anonymous teaching evaluations, available at the end of the semester, are the place to offer praise, criticism, and suggestions about the course/instructor.) A cover letter is typically one page long, but in this case it might be 2-3 pages long, single-spaced.
As a part of your cover letter, you will be both assessing each piece you completed (discussing its strengths and weaknesses) and also evaluating each piece (assigning it a grade). You will find, I am sure, that grading your work is no simple task! But this, too, is part of the learning process. To develop as a writer/scholar, you must be able to step back from your own work and realistically judge its merits and deficiencies. You need to judge your work SOLELY on the basis of how well it measures up to what you know to be good work in that genre. Give each piece you completed a grade and justify that grade. Also, be sure to discuss the grade that you would give the portfolio as a whole. Do not grade effort. I want to see your ability to judge the quality of your work.
Briefly, here are the essential elements of the eover letter:
- Introduction: explain the purpose of the letter, and the contents of the Final Portfolio. One paragraph.
- Overview of your principal activities/achievements in the course, including where you worked, with whom, how many hours/weeks, and a very brief list of the project components completed. One or two paragraphs.
- Analyze and assess each project component that you completed, including its strengths/weaknesses, highlighting specific details. Give it a letter grade (A-B-C-D-F, using +/- too) and explain the reasoning behind that grade.
- Assess your overall learning in this course—how well did you meet the course objectives? Explain how the Final Portfolio demonstrates what you did (or did not) learn in the course, and explain the grade you would give your own Portfolio.
Portfolio:
Determine the order in which your work appears in the portfolio. Other than the cover letter, which obviously goes on top, what order works best for your message? Should the reflective narrative essay appear after the cover letter or at the very end? Do you want your strongest piece to appear first or last? Should you arrange things chronologically in the order of completion or by some other design such as importance to your community partner? Decide what will show off your work the best to your audience (me). Just make sure that whatever you decide, you LABEL everything that you include in the portfolio.
Collect all materials in a neat, orderly way (clean, well marked, manila folder(s) are best). Please do not add a lot of weight to your portfolio beyond the work itself--I have to cart these around and mail them back to you. Of course, you should put everything in it that you want to include. A heavy binder is unnecessary. Label the sections of your portfolio as clearly as possible. Some students use tabs, paper clips, colored paper, etc. Choose what works best for you. Please turn in a self-addressed oversized envelope along with the portfolio, so I can send these to you. NOTE: please do not include stamps—the University will pay the postage.
Electronic Portfolio:
Students who wish to create an electronic rather than a paper portfolio are welcome to do so. The easiest version (in my opinion) is to create PDFs of all your documents, and then combine the PDF files into one Master PDF or into a PDF Portfolio. You already have some documents in MS Word or .JPG files; you may need to scan other documents to turn them into PDFs.
*** YourFinal Portfolios are due in my History Dept. box by 5 p.m. on Thursday, 12/12 (or earlier).
43.401 History Writing & Communityrev. 12/8/131/3
“Guidelines for Final Portfolio”
Subject Release: Agreement and Authorization for Subject to be mentioned in a scholarly article about Service-Learning by Christopher Carlsmith.
This Subject Release (the "Agreement") is made this day, DATE______.
BETWEEN:
_____Christopher Carlsmith______(the "author” or “authors”)
OF THE FIRST PART
-AND-
(SUBJECT’S NAME)______
of (SUBJECT’S ADDRESS)______,
in (state) ______(the "Subject") OF THE SECOND PART.
BACKGROUND:
A. The author may choose to be or is currently engaged in the business of publishing a scholarly article on Service-Learning, which includes but is not limited to engaging in the following activities: researching, writing, interviewing and editing a scholarly work about Service-Learning to benefit the profession.
B. The Subject consents to being a subject/participant in the essay. The Subject will allow the author(s) and editors of whatever publication in which the proposed essay appears to reproduce any or all work submitted in the course portfolio, including student’s cover letter, project proposal, final work, drafts, final reflective essay, or other submitted material about his or her service learning experiences. Consent is entirely voluntary, and participation or non-participation has no impact on a student’s course grade.
WHEREBY:
1. THE author and editors are RELEASED OF LIABILITY: For good and valuable consideration herein
acknowledged as received, the Subject releases the author(s) and editors and assigns permission to license all words and printed writing for any purpose which may include, among others, book publication, advertising, promotion, marketing and packaging for any product or service. The Subject agrees that any words or text may be combined with other, text and altered and modified. The Subject agrees that the author(s) and editors have no duty to show the Subject any material prior to using or distributing the material in any form.
2. THE author and editors RETAIN ALL RIGHTS: The Subject agrees that the author and editors have all rights to Text for perpetuity unless explicitly noted in this Agreement. The Subject acknowledges and agrees that the author and editors are not liable for any further consideration or accounting, and further claims for any reason.
3. DURATION OF AGREEMENT: This Agreement is binding on all heirs, legal representatives, and
assigns of the parties to this Agreement. The Subject acknowledges and agrees that this Agreement is
irrevocable, worldwide and perpetual.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the Subject has executed this release at (NAME OF TOWN / CITY)
______, in (state) ______on the date above.
4. ENTIRE AGREEMENT: This Agreement contains the entire agreement between the parties to this
Agreement and the terms of this Agreement are contractual and not a mere recital.
5. GOVERNING LAW: This Agreement will be construed in accordance with and governed by the laws of
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
SIGNED, SEALED AND DELIVERED
(SUBJECT’S NAME printed) ______
(SUBJECT’S signature) ______
In the presence of (WITNESS NAME):______
(WITNESS SIGNATURE:) ______
43.401 History Writing & Communityrev. 12/8/131/3
“Guidelines for Final Portfolio”