Manifesto: What to Expect

Courtyard Well at the Alamo (San Antonio, TX)
San Antonio, TX | March 2004 | T. Duckart

The Way of the Program
Guidelines and Resources for Composition Faculty at Humboldt State University

How and When It Works:
What Instructors Can Expect from the Portfolio Process

Updated: 06/09/05

Timeline | Supplies | What the Portfolio Score Means | Portfolio Norming

Portfolio Timeline

Week Six (approximately): English 200 instructors receive portfolio supplies

Week Nine (usually): Midsemester Portfolio Norming Session (including a midsemester portfolio reading for eligible English 200 students only)

Week Ten (approximately): English 100I/100 instructors receive preliminary portfolio supplies

Week Fifteen:

Monday: English 100I/100 instructors receive a magic pen and reader number
Wednesday: complete portfolios due to instructors (please do not collect/accept portfolios from your students after Wednesday--except, of course, in the case of emergency or adequate extenuating circumstance)
Thursday: Communal Portfolio Scoring Session that includes a norming session and support with scoring own portfolios (time TBA). The fall session is mandatory for GTAs and new faculty but optional for returning lecturers.
Thursday: Scored portfolios and full batch control sheets--completed except for portfolio scores--due to the collection boxes in the English Department Office (midnight). Please leave the batch control sheet intact.
Friday: Portfolio Reading
Saturday: Adjudication Session
Saturday: Completed batch control sheets due
Saturday: E Portfolio information to Barbara
Saturday: Tracy posts portfolio scores

Please click here for due dates and times appropriate to the current semester

Portfolio Supplies
The English Department furnishes Composition instructors with the necessary portfolio supplies; therefore, please do not create or copy them for yourselves. Tracy will ensure that instructors receive the following at or shortly following week ten:

Portfolio Scoring Guides
Batch Control Sheet(s)
Portfolio numbers (for assignment to students)

In addition, at the beginning of week fifteen, instructors will find a magic pen (invisible except when viewed under a blacklight) and a reader number for scoring their students' portfolios delivered to their mailboxes in the English Department Office. (Please see Scoring: Round I for additional information.) English 200 instructors can expect to receive these supplies early, at or around week six, well in advance of the midsemester reading.

What the Portfolio Score Means

To pass, a portfolio must earn a combined score of 8 or higher (two readers each assign a 4 or higher).

The E Portfolio:

To earn an E rating, a portfolio must earn a combined score of 12.
Those students who earn Es earn special recognition: a letter of commendation from the English Department chair and a certificate. These students are also recommended as writing tutors.
Please provide Barbara with a list of names, portfolio numbers, addresses, phone numbers, and student ID numbers of your students who earn Es by the designated deadline.

Failing Scores:

A score of 0 indicates that the portfolio does not meet minimum requirements; that is, it does not meet minimum page requirements or lacks a cover letter or includes fewer than three pieces of writing in addition to the cover letter.
A score of 0-6 requires the student to take English 200.
See "When Portfolios Fail."

Portfolio Norming
Norming sessions assure consistent and equivalent scoring--from instructor to instructor, from semester to semester--and provide instructors with practice in using the scoring guide to score portfolios.

Instructors benefit from two mandatory norming sessions per semester: one at midsemester and one at the final portfolio reading. One additional session is frequently available to GTAs and new instructors during the fall at the communal scoring session.

A norming session involves reading benchmark portfolios: five different portfolios representing a array of scores, usually a 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. After the group has individually read and scored the portfolios in the norming packet, we then compile the results and discuss discrepancies in the group's scores. This discussion continues until we can agree upon the qualities of the benchmark portfolios, thus assuring consistency in scoring actual portfolios and confidence in preparing our students to submit their portfolios.