Portfolio Letter

Ms. Hinks – Why are we doing this?

Preparation for 8th grade

portfolios twice a year – and twice as long!!

Being a reflective learner

reflection is an important skill for you to take with you in your future – college and career

thinking about your own thinking

what worked well & what didn’t go so well

thinking about how you learn or accomplish something successfully

how to improve to be successful next time

Expectations

Be honest and truthful!

this is your time to be honest about why you have missing assignments or received lower grades than you are capable of

You will be graded on how truthfully and thoughtfully you complete this reflection letter

Really understand how you learn

what you should get from this experience is understanding yourself as a learner

Independent work

You are the only one who can answer these questions

Table of Contents

Portfolio Letter

Text Logs and Vocabulary in chronological order, newest on top – 7 sets

Shared reading (“The Highwayman”, “Gentlemen of the Road”, “Annabel Lee”, The Giver, etc. Any shared reading that has a rubric should be included.) THIS SEMESTER ONLY!

Poebituary

Argument essay

Logistics – Need to collect

Text logs and PRB Vocab

Community Project Part 2

Project sheet with Rubric

Your community paragraph

Any other community notes (concept map/definition)

Checked out Ms. Stelovska’s books

PLEASE RETURN NOW

Checked out a book from library?

Return book on your own time (after school today?)

Part 1: Reading reflection

What do you think are your reading strengths? (Picking the “right” books, reading habits, rereading when you don’t understand, making accurate predictions, reading for long periods of time, etc.)

How are these skills a strength?

What do you think are your weaknesses in reading? (Switching books quickly without finishing them, reading without understanding, only reading for short periods of time, not reading daily, not analyzing literary devices, etc.)

Why do these behaviors weaken your reading comprehension?

What is the most important lesson you learned about reading this semester? What made it an important lesson?

Text logs – 7 sets

Dates for text logs

12/18 – 1/21

1/22 – 2/4

2/5 – 2/20

2/21 – 3/6

3/7 – 3/20

3/21 – 4/4

4/7 – 5/8

Part 2: Text logs

How many text logs did you complete this semester? If you have less than 70 text logs, explain why you are missing some. (New student? Lost? Incomplete? Be truthful!)

What were your reading habits this semester? Did you read 5 days a week, 30 minutes each time? Was this easy or difficult to do? Why?

What score did you typically earn on your text logs? Did your scores stay the same or improve? Why do you

think that is? What do you need to do to improve for next year? (read

comments!)

Part 3: Shared Reading

Look at the work you included from shared reading completed in class.

“The Highwayman” – compare/contrast to film clip

“Gentlemen of the Road” – compare/contrast to “HWM”

“Annabel Lee” – one pager

The Giver – theme paragraph

Choose one of the assignments and address why you feel proud of it.

How does it address deep thinking? (moving beyond the literal –thinking critically, analyzing, etc.)

How does it show your ability to find evidence and analyze it?

Part 4: Writing reflection

What are your strengths in writing? (Revising after feedback, giving myself feedback, getting good feedback from peers, getting good ideas for writing, etc.)

Why are these activities strengths?

What are your weaknesses in writing? (Getting started on drafts, not using all feedback, not finishing drafts, revising without making many changes, etc.)

How do these behaviors make writing difficult?

What is the most important lesson you learned about writing this semester? What made it an important lesson?

Part 5: Comparing Projects

Get out the Poebituary and persuasive essay:

A. Which writing project required more prewriting, the

Poebituary or the persuasive essay? Why did this project

need so much more prewriting than the other piece?

B. Which project did you like better? In what way was it better?

Don’t just say that you earned a higher grade on one than the

other. Explain thoroughly.

C. What do both of these projects show about you as a writer?

(What did you do well on in both projects?)

Table of Contents1. Portfolio Reflection Letter

2. Text Logs - # of text logs out of 70 (QUARTER 3-4 ONLY!!)

3. Poebituary

4. Argument Essay

5. Shared Reading Assignment #1 – the one you wrote about in Part 3 (DO NOT WRITE THAT – Give the title of what it was)

6. Shared Reading Assignment #2 (Give the title of what it was)

7. Shared Reading Assignment #3 Give the title of what it was)

8. Shared Reading Assignment #4 – (optional)

1. 2-3 more shared reading assignments you feel show your deep thinking (YES – character charts, paragraphs, compare/contrast) (NO- grammar, tests, quizzes)

Checklist

1. Portfolio Letter

2. Portfolio Rubric

3. Text Logs and Vocabulary in chronological order, newest on top

4. Any shared reading activities (one-pagers, Venn diagrams, The Giver assignments, etc.)

5. Poebituary

6. Argument essay

Alternative Portfolio Letter

If you have little to no assignments in your portfolio, explain the reasons for this. (Did you not complete the work, lost it, threw it away, etc.)

If you did not complete the assignments for this class, please explain why you choose not to do them or try to make them up.

Do you have missing assignments in your other classes or just English class? Why do you think that is?

Think of at least two goals for yourself for 8th grade. How do you plan to achieve those goals?

Anything else you would like to say about your performance in this class?