Reflections

Home

Reflections

Finally, readers:

Although portfolios have their flaws, many assessment scholars see them as more authentic modes of writing assessment than other modes (such as final or in-class written exams). Edward White (2007) explains that many teachers and scholars originally saw portfolios as assessments without the problems of more traditional means of assessment, such as validity and context (p. 165). Portfolios often seem to address the issues of reliability and validity Pamela Moss (1994) articulates, but without careful integration into the classroom and particular means of assessing (Huot, 1990; 1996; Yancey, 1999; Cambridge, Cambridge, & Yancey, 2009), portfolios, too, can be just as invalid as other modes of assessment at the end of the term. Early on in portfolio use, Peter Elbow and Pat Belanoff (1986) explained portfolios' affordances in contrast to the proficiency exams at SUNY Stony Brook. However, White (2007) is quick to point out that just a few short years after Elbow and Belanoff's (1986) article was published, problems and issues related to portfolio assessment did arise.

Though portfolios are often a strong means of assessing students' work, even portfolios can be used inappropriately (Hamp-Lyons & Condon, 1993; Broad, 1994; Huot & Williamson, 1997; White, 2007). Although portfolios are assessment tools that draw on contextualized arguments for validity, the particular type of portfolio that is most parallel with multimodal composition is a portfolio demonstrating process, growth, collaboration, and students’ use of rhetorical strategies, as has been shown throughout this portfolio.

Portfolios that simply collect finished works or are used to showcase students’ best pieces are not going to be used as effectively with multimodal composition because they do not demonstrate the learning that has occurred throughout the duration of the class. For example, finished-works portfolios may not show the hard work one student puts in to composing a webtext because ultimately, the webtext does not look “finished.” In this example, the learning and movement from early to late writing stages is not seen—only the shabbily constructed webtext (which may have taken the student weeks to compose) is displayed. In this portfolio, I hope you've seen that although my finished product may not be the most sophisticated webtext, I have grown as a digital writer from using a prefabricated template to actually integrating webdesign and hypertext back-linked to various digital documents (a technique not present in the first two versions of the portfolio).

Multimodal composition, too, is about more than just the end product. Careful articulations of objectives and goals must be part of students' learning processes. When eportfolios and multimodal composition are brought together, they help students understand the value of process, the value of growth over time, and the careful attention to rhetorical strategies and choices they must pay to their composing processes. Helping studnets understand how these two tools merge to reinforce similar objectives and goals has the potential to strengthen students' growth and development, helping them to meet those objectives and goals before the semester comes to a close.

The portfolio you've been reading is a multimodal composition that has evolved over time. The original version did not meet the needs of the rhetorical situation, and so I revised again and again (although I've only shown readers the two most substantial draft changes, this text has gone through many drafts--I had to be choosy about which drafts exemplified my growth both in terms of multimodal composition and portfolio design). As with portfolios, my end product may not immediately reflect the learning curve needed to create this document. It might not be as professional in appearance as some webtexts or eportfolios, but it has come a long way from my first attempts at crafting the text.

The portfolio that is not designed for a particular context will not be an effective learning tool for students or instructors, though they may work very well as assessment tools. In order to incorporate portfolios effectively into the classroom, teachers must scrutinize their purposes of using portfolios and critically develop portfolio requirements to reflect that purpose (Perry, 1997; Murphy, 1999). This is also true of multimodal composition. I've heard students complain of courses that "aren't about writing" because teachers are too heavily focused on what new media students might use throughout the semester. Without guidance and thought-provoking work, students will not understand the implications of multimodal writing for their education, careers, and personal use. Having dialogue with studnets about why multimodal composition or portfolio assessments are being used can contribute to the tone of the course, the energy poured into the assignments, and students' growth over time.

This eportfolio is not a finished-works portfolio. Instead, it is a process portfolio, highlighting the main stages of writing and revision throughout the life of this webtext. Some instructors rely on finished-works portfolio even though finished-works portfolios may not show the hard work one student puts in to composing a webtext because ultimately, the webtext does not look “finished." Though this eportfolio may not look like a professional website and may not have the polished look of some webtexts my colleagues create, it serves the purpose of a portfolio. It demonstrates my learning and growth as a composer throughout my stages of argument building. It is a multimodal text demonstrating a thought-out argument with multiple angles and connecting lines of reasoning. It uses print-linguistics, hypertext, color, and layout elements to craft a cohesive argument and meet the needs of the audience.

As your reading of this eportfolio comes to a close, I hope you will take this piece as an example of what you might attempt to foster in your own classrooms. Keep Jackson's (2010) comments about deliberate teaching in mind, and consider the ways a classroom might become more robust and meaningful to students when multimodal composition and portfolio assessment are combined. Students might take more away from such a class, especially when the course is carefully scaffolded to help students see connections between these complementary projects and the bridges they can build between rhetorical situations by using transferable rhetorical skills.

I have offered research, theories, and examples of why and how you might use portfolios and multimodal composition together in your own classroom. Crafting this eportfolio piece reinforces my desire to push students, to ask them to engage in the difficult work of revision, to think outside of the box where writing is concerned, and to find creative ways of affirming and showcasing their work. Portfolios and multimodal writing go hand-in-hand, espeically as more and more of the writing students create and are exposed to is multimodal. Because these pedagogical techniques so frequently complement each other, we should work toward drawing on these complements more readily, enhancing our teaching and our students' learning.

~Courtney L. Werner

Top

Home

Defining Multimodal Composition

Affordances

Constraints

Drafts

Reflections

References