Tangential Lines: The first new direction

Portfolio Contents Home The Background Guiding Questions Portfolios, Technologies, and the Composition Classroom EPortfolios Why Portfolios? Outlining Multimodal Composition The Cs Enhanced Writing   Parallel Educational Tools First Parallel Second Parallel Third Parallel Fourth Parallel New Directions: Into Infinity (Expanding Ideas) Tangent Line 2 Tangent Line 3 Final Reflections References

How are instructors to design contextual course curricula?

Both portfolios and multimodal composition assignments may fall flat on their faces in the writing classroom. Teachers must recognize that these learning and assessing tools may not work effectively for every class, or even every student or teacher. Both are capable of enhancing learning opportunities, but when used without adequate critical development or attention to the context and purpose of the course, coursework, and assessment practices, they both have the potential to detract from and affectively poison the learning experience and environment.

Context: Benefits couched in drawbacks Another problem for incorporating portfolio assessment or multimodal assignments into a college writing course lies in the contextual nature of both tools. In order for portfolios to work for a given course, they must be contextualized—they must be developed in regards to the needs of the course and the stakeholders associated with the course, and students must understand why they are being asked to create them (Yancey, 1992; Perry, 1997; Murphy, 1999; Murphy & Smith, 1999). As Murphy and Smith (1999) insist, “Portfolios are not an appendix, something tacked onto the tail end of classroom curriculum” (p. 328). The same is true of multimodal assignments—they need to be incorporated into classrooms gradually, with purpose and careful scaffolding (Selfe, 2007; Selber, 2004). Often, instructors become frustrated with students' questions (questions like, "Why am I always using the computer when I'm supposed to be learning how to write an essay?") because the instructors take the answers for granted. Instructors might think the answers are obvious, but today's students are not the same students who were in the classroom in years passed. They may be more technologically advanced, but they have also been exposed to years of testing that forces them to think of writing as a painful, tedious task constrained by five meager paragraphs and a formulaic thesis. While this formula of essay writing is certainly useful for particular contexts, it is not the summation of all writing; it doesn't even account for all writing produced within the confines of academia. Callahan (1995) suggests that portfolio pedagogy should be a “response to [teachers’] perceptions of classroom needs,” as should opportunities to engage in multimodal composition (p. 120). While both need to be strategically crafted into the course curriculum, this is impossible when teachers must construct courses without any knowledge of their students. Very rarely do teachers know their students well enough to design a course tailored to their particular needs before the semester begins. With a course designed in conjunction with students, instructors can use both portfolios and multimodal assignments with positive results because students have a stake in them. However, administrators often need to have course syllabi and other pertinent records before the first week of the semester is out. How then, are instructors to design contextual course curricula? The problem is an odd one, often skirted by instructors as their courses are tweaked to students’ needs as the semester progresses; though, this, can also be problematic. For most instructors and students, the syllabus is used as a binding contract between instructor and student should disputes arise, especially in regards to grading or assignment requirements. The paperwork necessary to begin a course often precludes tailoring coursework and assessment particular to students’ needs in the classroom context. If courses are destined to be created prior to knowing which students are enrolled, their predispositions for learning styles, and their personal writing abilities and interests, many students may feel that multimodality, digital composition, and portfolios are all additives; they become more hoops for students to jump through just to pass this writing course. From an instructor's standpoint, the course design--from in-class activities to digitized multimodal projects to portfolio assessment--needs to be explained to students from day one. The explanation needs to be rearticulated as the semester progresses, helping students make connections between their coursework, their developing writing styles, and the ways they are being assessed on a near-daily basis.