Final Reflection on Learning

Final Reflection on Learning:

The ERWC Portfolio

Developed by Norman Unrau

MODULE: TEACHER VERSION GRADE 12

The Final Reflection on Learning, which focuses on each student’s portfolio of ERWC work, has been designed to give your students and you an opportunity to review and reflect upon student learning through long-term engagement in the ERWC.It consists of ERWC assignments selected by the students, astudent-generated letter about those assignments, and a self-assessment chart. As a summative assessment, the letter students compose can provide your students and you with information and insights about student growth—and their needs for future academic literacy development.

This assignment asks students to examine their portfolio of ERWC documents generated throughout the course, select specific documents—including a quickwrite, an annotated text, a summary, and three essays—and analyze those documents. Students are expected to inspect the documents to explain how their reading and writing processes and their progress are manifested in them. They can also complete the Student Learning Outcomes Self-Assessment to evaluate their self-perceived progress. Students can then draw upon their analysis of selected documents and their SLO Self-Assessment to write their portfolio reflection letter. Several questions that are part of the assignment provide students with inquiry-oriented guidelines to develop their letters. Some of these questions urge students to examine their work to discover how their reading and writing processes may have changed throughout the year and what specific examples in their work provide evidence of those changes. Other questions urge students to identify their strengths and weaknesses as readers and writers, to discuss how expectations for their reading and writing of texts have changed, and to consider how well prepared they believe they are for the academic reading and writing they may face in college.

A rubric for the assessment of the portfolio letter can serve as a means of evaluating student performance.The rubric includes an array of student learning outcomes in reading and writing, such as understanding key rhetorical concepts, citing textual evidence to support claims, analyzing an author’s assumptions and appeals, writing analytical and organized texts that are focused on a central idea, and using the voice of others in the development of one’s own arguments.

The strategies in this section of the ERWC are designed to reinforce students’ learning of the content of the CCSS for ELA/Literacy in the preceding sections of the template. / Establishing and Maintaining a Portfolio of Student Work:
To engage effectively in this culminating ERWC activity, students should have access to work they have done throughout the course, including not only essays but also Quickwrites, annotated texts, and summaries. If possible, procedures for keeping portfolios of students’ work ought to be established early in the course and periodically revisited. Some ERWC teachers have discovered that keeping a matrix of module writing assignments, scores or comments on them, notations about strengths and weaknesses, and goals for next writing assignments have facilitated portfolio maintenance and promoted student-regulated development. A copy of a suggested matrix called “ERWC: Where I Am and Where I’m Going” is appended to this final reflection for your consideration.
What Benefits Come with the Portfolio Letter?
Beyond the self-regulatory and goal-setting benefits to individual students that arise from their analysis of work done over several months, teachers benefit from student portraits of progress in a class. When viewed as a set, the portraits contribute to a composite picture of the class that enables teachers to detect patterns of improvement and needs for instructional modifications that might enhance that improvement. Furthermore, the individual portfolio letters, formed in the context of student learning goals for ERWC, can help teachers decide what grade best reflects a student’s performance in the course.
The Portfolio Letter: A Final Reflection on Learning in the ERWC
Purpose:
At the end of this course, you will put together a collection of your work for your ERWC portfolio. Imagine that you are presenting and evaluating your work in order to demonstrate that you have achieved expected course learning outcomes.
The portfolio will include a portfolio analysis of your work over two semesters with representative assignments from various times during the course.
Requirements:
Document Minimum: Quickwrite, annotated text, summary, 3 timed or process essays (one each from early, middle, and late phases of the course).
Portfolio Letter
Write a portfolio letter analyzing your reading and writing processes and the progress you have made during the past two semesters. Use the Student Learning Outcomes Self-Assessment exercise to evaluate your own progress, drawing upon your responses as you compose your letter. Your letter should make a persuasive text-based argument that you have met ERWC Portfolio Criteria. You must refer to the assignments themselves and discuss all parts of your portfolio. In this analysis you should address the following questions:

Why did you choose these particular assignments (including the three essays)?
What was the process you went through to complete the Quickwrite, the annotated text, and the summary. How has the process you go through to create documents like these changed?
How has your ability to write academic essays developed? Include specific examples from your three essays to provide evidence of your process or progress. For ideas, look back on journals, memos, or “Reflections on Reading and Writing” you have done throughout the semester and/or compare earlier work to later work.
What have you learned about your own strengths and weaknesses as a reader and writer and the ways your reading and writing have changed? How have you modified your reading and writing processes? Provide examples of changes in writing processes where possible.
What have you learned about the expectations of academic reading and writing while completing these assignments? In what ways have you been able to transfer to your other classes what you have learned about those expectations?
What can you do now that you could not do at the beginning of the course? Provide specific examples.
In what areas of your reading and writing do you still see needs for further growth and development? What specific goals could you set for yourself to improve your reading and writing?
How well do you believe you are prepared for the academic reading and writing you are likely to encounter in college? Explain your grounds for that belief.

Place this analysis at the beginning of your portfolio in front of Parts I through IV.
Assignments
Part I: Quickwrite (Place items in the following order):
1)Selected Quickwrite
2)Prompt for Quickwrite
3)Rationale for choosing this particular Quickwrite
Part II: Annotated Reading (Place items in the following order):
1)Selected annotated reading
2)Rationale for choosing this particular annotated reading
3)Reflection on what you have learned about the ways in which annotating texts contributes to your reading and understanding of them
Part III: Summary (Place items in the following order):
1)Selected summary
2)Rationale for choosing this particular summary
3)Reflection on what you have learned about how to write summaries and their value to you as a student
Part IV: Three Essays (one from early, middle, and late phases of the course)
1)Three essays selected, date each was completed, and the module on which each was based
2)The prompts for these three essays
3)What you have learned about writing essays from the course and how these three essays demonstrate your growth as a writer
4)An explanation of what your next goals as a writer are and how you plan to work toward their attainment.
Format
The Portfolio Letter is to be placed at the front of the portfolio you submit. Behind the Portfolio Letter, place Parts I through IV in the file with a paper clip holding together each of the parts.
Make sure the parts of the portfolio are in the following order:

Quickwrite
Annotated Text
Summary
Three Essays

The strategies in this section of the ERWC are designed to reinforce students’ learning of the content of the CCSS for ELA/Literacy in the preceding sections of the template. / Monitoring the Progress of the Portfolio over the Course of the Year
To help students stay organized, students can complete the “Where Am I and Where I’m Going?” chart after each writing assignment is returned.
“Where Am I and Where I’m Going” Chart
In order to keep track of your progress over the course of the year, fill in the chart below after the writing assignments for each module are returned. Use rubric markings and/or teacher comments and peer-response comments to assist you with this task.
Module Title and Writing Assignment
(for example, essay, summary, quickwrite, etc.) / Rubric Score and/or Teacher Comments / Strengths
(using language from the Rubric, teacher’s comments, peer-response comments, or your own perceptions) / Weaknesses
(using language from the Rubric, teacher’s comments, peer-response comments, or your own perceptions) / Where I’m Going: Goals for My Next Writing Assignment
(using language from the Rubric)
The strategies in this section of the ERWC are designed to reinforce students’ learning of the content of the CCSS for ELA/Literacy in the preceding sections of the template. / Student Learning Outcomes Self-Assessment
The final self-assessment of student learning outcomes provides students an opportunity to consider the level of knowledge and skills they have achieved. Based on the work they have collected in their portfolio over the course of the year, guide your students to reflect on their progress for the year and their current level of achievement.
Student Learning Outcomes Self-Assessment
Name: / Anticipated grade in the course:
Please mark the box by each outcome that best represents your level of achievement.
Learning Outcome / Level 2
Demonstrates Partial Command of Knowledge and Skills / Level 3
Demonstrates Sufficient Command of Knowledge and Skills / Level 4
Demonstrates Deep Command of Knowledge and Skills
Reading Rhetorically Outcomes

Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what a text says and implies.

Analyze how ideas, events, and/or narrative elements interact and develop over the course of a text.

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text.

Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument.

Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text.

Analyze an author’s assumptions and appeals (e.g., ethos, pathos, and logos).

Learning Outcome / Level 2
Demonstrates Partial Command of Knowledge and Skills / Level 3
Demonstrates Sufficient Command of Knowledge and Skills / Level 4
Demonstrates Deep Command of Knowledge and Skills
Reading Rhetorically Outcomes(continued)

Analyze the extent to which the writer’s arguments anticipate and address reader concerns and counterclaims.

Analyze the writer’s use of rhetorical devices and strategies.

Writing Rhetorically Outcomes

Understand key rhetorical concepts such as audience, purpose, context, and genre through analysis of texts.

Write a variety of text types for real audiences and purposes, making effective rhetorical choices in light of those audiences and purposes.

Contribute to an ongoing conversation in ways that are appropriate to the academic discipline and context.

Write reading-based arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

Develop academic/analytical essays that are focused on a central idea and effectively organized

Incorporate the texts of others effectively and use documentation styles suitable to the task, genre, and discipline

Edit for clarity and for standard written English grammar, usage, and mechanics

Select words and phrases that express precise meaning concisely and effectively, taking into consideration the rhetorical purpose of the text

Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience

Demonstrate the ability to observe, evaluate, and regulate one’s development as a writer of expository texts, including the identification of areas needing further growth.

Listening and Speaking Rhetorically Outcomes

Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with peers.

Habits of Mind Outcomes
1.Act as motivated, self-directed learners.
2.Persist during difficult academic tasks.
Learning Outcome / Level 2
Demonstrates Partial Command of Knowledge and Skills / Level 3
Demonstrates Sufficient Command of Knowledge and Skills / Level 4
Demonstrates Deep Command of Knowledge and Skills
Habits of Mind Outcomes(continued)
3.Consider new ways of thinking and being; see other points of view.
4.Apply prior knowledge to new learning.
5.Understand the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.
6.Adapt to new situations, expectations, demands, and disciplines.
7.Learn to critique their own and others' academic work.
8.Reflect on their learning and on the processes that shape knowledge
9.Demonstrate the ability to be both open-minded and discerning
10.Establish routines that support advanced literacy practices
11.Challenge their own assumptions
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SignatureDate
The strategies in this section of the ERWC are designed to reinforce students’ learning of the content of the CCSS for ELA/Literacy in the preceding sections of the template. / Evaluating the ERWC Portfolio
Use the following criteria to evaluate the students’ portfolios. You will be considering the degree to which the portfolio provides evidence of student ability in several areas.
Criteria

Portfolio provides evidence of exceptional ability in the areas below.
Portfolio provides evidence of adequate ability in the areas below.
Portfolio fails to provide evidence of adequate ability in the areas below.

Understand key rhetorical concepts, such as audience, purpose, context, and genre through analysis of texts.
Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what a text says and implies.
Analyze how ideas, events, and/or narrative elements interact and develop over the course of a text.
Determine the meaning of words or phrases as they are used in a text.
Analyze an author’s assumptions and appeals, for example, ethos, logos, and pathos.
Analyze the author’s use of rhetorical devices and strategies.
Write a variety of text types for real audiences and purposes, making effective rhetorical choices in light of those audiences and purposes.
Contribute the writer’s own ideas and opinions about a topic to an ongoing conversation in ways that are appropriate to the academic discipline or context.
Write reading-based arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence; make warranted and reasonable assertions about the author’s arguments and themes by using elements of the text to defend and clarify interpretations.
Develop academic/analytical texts that are focused on a central idea and effectively organized.
Incorporate the texts of others effectively and use documentation styles suitable to the task, genre, and discipline.
Edit for clarity and for standard written English grammar, usage, and mechanics.
Select words and phrases that express precise meaning concisely and effectively, taking into consideration the rhetorical purpose of the text.
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
Demonstrate ability to observe, evaluate, and regulate one’s development as a writer of expository texts, including the identification of areas needing further growth.

CSU EXPOSITORY READING AND WRITING COURSE DRAFT Final Reflection-Teacher Version1