Revision and Portfolios

Objective: Students will have an opportunity to revise, and possibly also showcase, their previous work, to arrive at pieces that they feel represent their best work. They will also have an opportunity to reflect on what has gone well in their work so far and what could be improved upon.  

Key Terms: Revision, reflection, early/final draft, portfolio. 

Timing: Revisions and portfolios could be utilized periodically throughout the semester, or less often, depending on instructor preferences. 

Lesson

Example I: This example is for a proof-based course where students periodically select some of their proofs from their homework problems, revise them, and submit them as “final drafts” that are meant to represent their best work. It assumes there are regular, eg weekly, homework assignments given during the course. 

  1. At the beginning of the semester, discuss with your students the nature of the revision structure you will be using, and make sure this is reflected in your syllabus. See, for example, this Analysis syllabus, created by Margaret Beck.  
  2. For each HW assignment, list a selection of problems that are available for revision and submission as final drafts. These could be, for example, problems that are proof-based, as opposed to problems that are more focused on examples or computations. 
  3. Provide the students with a framework through which the revised proofs will be assessed. For example, in the analysis course that corresponds to the above syllabus,  this rubric was used for assessing the proofs as either “achieved” or “not yet achieved”. 
  4. You may wish to also incorporate peer feedback on early drafts of the proofs.

Example II: This example is for a course where each student creates a midterm portfolio and a final portfolio. A portfolio not only provides students with the opportunity to revise their work, but it also provides students with an opportunity to reflect on the overall work they have done so far in the course.

  1. At the beginning of the semester, discuss with your students the nature of the portfolio structure you will be using, and make sure this is reflected in your syllabus. See, for example, this Number Theory syllabus, created by Li-Mei Lim.
  2. Provide the students with a prompt for each portfolio submission you would like them to make. See, for example, these Number Theory midterm portfolio prompts and final portfolio prompts, created by Li-Mei Lim.
  3. Provide them with information about how the portfolios will be assessed, and what the process for revision will be. See, for example, this Number Theory rubric for HW rewrites and portfolio entries, created by Li-Mei Lim.

Example III: This example is for a course where each student creates a portfolio of their work throughout the semester, and where students receive regular peer feedback on their portfolio. 

  1. At the beginning of the semester, discuss with your students the nature of the portfolio structure you will be using, and make sure this is reflected in your syllabus. See, for example, this Discrete Math syllabus, created by Debbie Borkovitz.
  2. Put the students into groups that they will work with throughout the entire semester. 
  3. Provide the students with a date by which they must have an early version of their portfolio ready to share with their group. For example, you could modify this Portfolio Update 1, created by Debbie Borkovitz, to suit your personal preferences and the context of your course. You can even provide them with a specific template, such as this template, created by Debbie Borkovitz. 
  4. Provide the students with a framework for giving each other feedback on their portfolio, such as this framework, created by Debbie Borkovitz. 
  5. Repeat the above several times throughout the semester so as to provide students with an overall path to preparing their final portfolio, which they will submit to you at the end of the semester.