Portfolio Bibliography

Key Portfolio Sources

Black, Laurel, Donald A. Daiker, Jeffrey Sommers, and Gail Stygall, eds. New Directions in Portfolio Assessment: Reflective Practice, Critical Theory, and Large-Scale Scoring. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1994.

  • Places portfolios within these contexts: Portfolios in the Classroom (Students' Voices, Teachers' Voices, Teacher Training) and Large-Scale Portfolio Assessment (Issues in Portfolio Scoring and Issues in Portfolio Administration).

White, Edward M., William D. Lutz, and Sandra Kamusikiri, eds. Assessment of Writing: Politics, Policies, Practices. New York: Modern Language Association, 1996.

  • Explores range of issues in writing assessment at programmatic levels. The book's five sections are titled Political and Legal Issues; Validity and Reliability; Models of Writing Assessment: Old and New; Issues of Inclusion and Equality; and A Look to the Future.

Yancey, Kathleen Blake, and Irwin Weiser, eds. Situation Portfolios: Four Perspectives. Logan, UT: Utah State UP, 1997.

  • Addresses these four perspectives: Theory and Power, Pedagogy, Teaching and Professional Development, and Technology. Discusses portfolio use with a variety of learners ranging from young children to law students and doctoral candidates.

Student Portfolios

Cover Letters

Conway, Glenda. "Portfolio Cover Letters, Students' Self-Presentation, and Teachers' Ethics." Black, et al. 83-92.

  • Presents the problem of only requiring students' written self-reflection in one, end-of-term writing assignment: the portfolio cover letter. Conway argues that, to be ethically responsible, teachers should require and respond to students' self-reflection and self-analyses throughout the term.

Reynolds, Nedra. "Graduate Writers and Portfolios: Issues of Professionalism, Authority, and Resistance." Black, et al. 201-209.

  • Demonstrates the value of implementing portfolios in graduate courses: portfolios provide an opportunity for students to take more risks with their writing than they would with a single seminar paper. Specifically mentions the value of the portfolio cover letter as a place where students situate themselves within not only the course but the larger academic community.

Romano, Tom. "Removing the Blindfold: Portfolios in Fiction Writing Classes." Black, et al. 73-82.

  • Argues that the "cover letter" accompanying the portfolio is the place where both students and teachers learn about how the components of the portfolio fit together as a whole.

Teacher Evaluation/Assessment

Hamilton, Sharon. "Portfolio Pedagogy: Is a Theoretical Construct Good Enough?" Black, et al. 157-167.

  • Uses discussions from the 1992 Miami University Conference on Portfolio Assessment to examine theoretical assumptions underlying the use of portfolio pedagogy. The author also presents her own model of portfolio use in a writing workshop classroom.

Thelin, William H. "The Connection Between Response Styles and Portfolio Assessment: Three Case Studies of Student Revision." Black, et al. 113-125.

  • Traces the experiences of three students enrolled in a freshman composition class at a California state university as they revised their work for their end-of-semester portfolios. Finds a major discrepancy between the teacher's response style (reader-response comments with virtually no mention of stylistic or editing-level concerns) and the portfolio system. Concludes that portfolios must fit with other pedagogy to create effective learning experiences for students.

Pre-Professional Portfolios

Anson, Chris M. "Portfolios for Teachers: Writing Our Way to Reflective Practice." in Black, et al. 185-200.

  • Provides a valuable overview of the issues involved with teaching portfolios, including sections headed "The Nature and Structure of Teaching Portfolios," "Teaching Portfolios at the Center of Writing Programs," "Adapting Teaching Portfolios to Specific Contexts," and "The Problem of Assessment." Contains especially useful specific information such as lists of documents that can be included in teaching portfolios and a cumulative model for the potential changes in focus and entries as teachers progress through their training.

Nettles, Diane Hood, and Petrick, Pamela Bondi. Portfolio Development for Preservice Teachers. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1995. [Library of Congress Number: 95-67073; ISBN Number 0-87367-379-4]

  • Explains the rationale for and then describes a six-step process by which teacher education faculty at California University at Pennsylvania initiated a portfolio process for their students to use both during their educational experiences and as they enter their professional careers.

Weiser, Irwin. "Portfolios and the New Teacher of Writing." Black, et al. 219-229.

  • Responds to some of the concerns raised by yancey (see "Make Haste Slowly" entry below) by describing a teacher-preparation program and discussing the benefits of portfolio evaluation to students and their teachers.

-----. "Revising Our Practices: How Portfolios Help Teachers Learn." Yancey and Weiser, 293-301.

  • Describes the function of student portfolios for new graduate teachers of writing enrolled in a teaching practicum course at Purdue University. Finds that using portfolios in their own classes helps new teachers become better readers of an responders to student writing, contributes to new teachers and their students' understanding of both processes and products of writing, and provides opportunities for teachers to reflect on their pedagogy and practice.

Yagelski, Robert P. "Portfolios as a Way to Encourage Reflective Practice Among Preservice English Teachers." Yancey and Weiser. 225-243.

  • Describes a program created to better help prepare secondary-education teachers, but the strategies are also applicable to college-level teachers. The primary goal of this portfolio program is to encourage teachers to be critically self-reflexive of their pedagogy and practice.

Yancey, Kathleen Blake. "Make Haste Slowly: Graduate Teaching Assistants and Portfolios." Black, et al. 210-218.

  • Cautions that beginning teachers should have appropriate support when being required to compile portfolios, and identifies three specific types of that support: time to develop, resources to draw upon, and guidance to shape their own portfolio writing classroom.

-----. "Teacher Portfolios: Lessons in Resistance, Readiness, and Reflection." yancey and Weiser. 244-262.

  • Describes and presents the success of a redesigned English methods class for prospective teachers; in this revision of the class, reflection is built into the semester-long portfolio process rather than saved for a more traditional "cover letter" at the conclusion of the project.