One
of the more onerous tasks as an English teacher in Bhutan is managing students’
portfolio writing. It is one of the few grades that students receive, which is
not exam based but it is difficult to utilize the portfolio writing to improve
students’ writing skills. I have struggled with finding a way to make it more
useful and better able to bring out the best in students.
After
several trial and error efforts at improvement last year finally, I struck upon
the idea of insisting that the pieces a portfolio should contain be a balance
of original, teacher corrected and copied writing. Why these 3?
Original
writing often seems to be poetry and as such by students at least, it is seen
as a quick and easy way to fill a folder with writing without applying a great
deal of thought or effort. I have tried to overcome this by requiring a balance
of each of the 3 types of writing mentioned above and also by assigning
supplementary pieces, which relate to our class texts and suggesting that
students attempt them as a part of their portfolio writing. In this way they
are practising writing skills that will be useful to them in their academic
pursuits but they continue to have a choice about which ones they will attempt if
any so it is not totally prescriptive.
I
specifically tell students never in their assessment, written assignments or
exams will they be asked to write poetry so they need to question whether this
skill is valuable to them. I too, wrote
poetry as an adolescent and I know that many genuinely enjoy writing it. That is admirable but is it equally admirable to include it in a school required
portfolio? Perhaps a personal collection is a better endpoint for that kind of
writing. My opinion may simply result from the fact I may have read too much
adolescent angst in the form of poetry!
Including
assigned class work that has already been corrected in the portfolio collection
on the other hand, ensues that the time and effort I put into thoroughly
checking their work is not wasted. Universally students are primarily concerned
only with the grades they receive and I hope that my insistence on them rewriting
and making a perfect copy of corrected work to include in their portfolios,
makes them focus on their own strengths and weakness as writers, while also giving
them a sense of pride in the final result. I hope that in this way they are
able to get a clearer picture of what needs improvement and I usually offer
suggestions about how to improve those aspects of their writing in the comments
at the end of the corrected pieces. My heart sinks when I see them read the
score and then toss the paper in the rubbish bin in the classroom, so this strategy
also attempts to stop that practice. This alternative approach works side by
side with editing and redrafting on the original piece. I have diligently tried
to stop students from making endless drafts: a process, which requires them to
copy their own mistakes again and again, reinforcing their errors. I therefore
hope making a copy of the corrected piece gets them to focus on the accurate
forms and ensures even if their original score was low they now know the
correct answer: thankfully something they are obsessed with.
As
for copying the writing of other students, authors they have read or even my
own writing used as examples; stop them if you can! I have tried to turn this
into an advantage by encouraging them to always correctly record the sources of
the material they copy and to use quotation marks accurately when they “steal”
from other writers. These referencing skills are ones that will be useful to
them when they attempt research papers of their own in class XII and beyond in
tertiary education if they continue studying beyond high school. Example pieces
of high quality can be valuable in teaching style, structure and form, but
mindlessly copying to avoid thinking and writing for oneself is unacceptable.
Plagiarism is now a word that every student I have taught is familiar with.
Still it is hard “to teach an old dog new tricks.”
The
last time I collected portfolios it took 3 full weeks utilizing every
non-teaching period at school, to wade through the mountains of words that 98
class XI students can produce. Those aiming to become journalists ignore the
instruction to balance the content and produce 20 or so original pieces believing
that that instruction cannot apply to them because writing is their passion!
That means it takes more than an hour to check just one student’s work. Others
thinking I will not read every line, in every piece cunningly begin with an
original introduction and then copy the rest of the essay from another student!
Still others regurgitate what was obviously assigned and corrected by an
English teacher at some point in the past. A precious few stun you by doing
exactly as you have asked at an incredibly high standard.
Just
occasionally a piece of writing strikes your fancy and you wonder if the whole
concept of portfolios remains in place just so you can be surprised and
delighted by something that you would never have asked them to write.
When
I return the portfolios to the class, I spend a lesson on common errors and ask
them to record which of those errors they can see in their own writing with
examples of correct usage. Ideally this becomes the common error checklist at
the back of their exercise books and they then take the next step to use it to
edit their own drafts the next time they write. Optimist to the end, am I.
No
matter what way you look at it portfolios are problematic and I wish an
alternative method of assessing students’ writing would be adopted sooner
rather than later.
The
following is an original piece submitted in the portfolio of Cheki Wangdi Class
XI Science, 2012. I have reproduced and made slight grammatical alterations to it
with his permission.
Ode to my English Teacher
Inspiring were and are the words
she speaks,
Without any selfishness or bias she
teaches,
With incredible effort and
devotion,
She seeks to make the students
witty.
I feel heartfelt gratitude for her
dedication,
Because of which I prefer
participation.
Responsibilities shouldered by her
Are beyond one’s imagination.
Entrance of her into the class
evokes all kinds of feelings:
Of eagerness, hunger, and the
foremost one, willingness:
To learn, discover the new –
unknown fresh lessons,
About which she would teach us with
generosity.
Our beloved English Teacher,
Is a living soul with amazing ideas,
Which we describe as a stroke of
genius.
We acknowledge you for your
teaching
And unwavering dedication to your
profession.
