Having just completed a memoir and a thesis essay, I wanted to give students the chance to show me their learning in a different way. Thus, I decided to have students create a three-part portfolio assignment. My goal was for students to be able to apply a text (Of Mice and Men) to different discourses of writing: something analytic, something creative, and something of their choice.
Students were required to write a response paper to “Friendship in an Age of Economics,” a piece by Todd May based on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. They were also required to draft a letter as one character writing to another (or a reflective, in-character diary entry). The third option was their free choice. See the “Portfolio Options” instruction sheet below. My only comment here is that perhaps I gave them too many options!
And, of course, I gave them a rubric for all of this.
I was impressed by the work they turned in, and by their presentations. Keep reading to see all of this, with student work samples.