Using portfolios as an assessment tool.

Dr Hammond discusses how writing is assessed at Stony Brook and how this assessment has evolved from assessing only the students end product to assessing the writing process and the growth of the students skills. Portfolio collection, which began at Stony Brook in the late 1970s, has enabled students to gather evidence of this progression. The faculty in the Writing Program work with their students to prepare the students portfolios for an external grader (other faculty within the department). Portfolios enable the faculty member to take on a coaching role rather than a grader. The students portfolios are judged to check students mastery of research skills, organizational skills, paragraphing skills, grammatical and punctuation skills, and choosing an appropriate tone of voice for academic discourse. Portfolios can of course span multiple courses and semesters, enabling students to present their best work to a prospective employer. Electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) allow the students to save material and selectively share components of the portfolio with different audiences.
Gene also discusses how writing can help students to understand any subject even mathematics. He encourages the use writing both to increase and to measure students understanding of material in all courses on campus. The Writing Programs Writing Center staff (tutors) will help students work on their papers in all classes on campus so that faculty across the campus can concentrate on encouraging the best writing habits for their specific disciplines. Gene is joined by Nancy Wozniak who discusses different types and applications of portfolios.