Students will present their writing portfolios to an audience. Twenty of their best pieces should be included. Using a theme, students will display their best work of the school year.
Students should be writing in class at least one day a week. They should be informed that their portfolios will be presented at the end of the year. A theme should be selected that will tie all of their pieces together. All drafts and final copies should be stored in a folder. Types that students could include are as follows: short stories, business letters, journals, research papers, literary analysis, literary comparisons, narrative essays, descriptive essays, informational essays, persuasive essays, expository essays, or poems.
Students should create a committee of family, neighbors, favorite teachers, and/or community leaders to help them select their best pieces. The committee should have at least three people on it. One person should not be a relative. Student should meet with the committee and share their writing about a month before the presentation.
Each student should have a tri-fold display board and a table top. The best 20 pieces of writing should be arranged on the tri-fold with colorful borders and interesting lettering. If all of the pieces will not fit, they can be organized in a three ring binder, put in frames, placed in folders, or arranged around the tri-fold. The student’s name should be clearly displayed on the board along with the theme.
Try to grab the audience’s attention with a question, quote, fact or anecdote. Introduce yourself, tell your theme, and discuss your writing process. Tell about your pieces. You have 20. Briefly tell about 10. Choose two to read aloud or discuss more in-depth. Close up by summarizing your presentation and making a memorable point. Ask for questions. Tell students to write note cards for their speech and practice.
Invite the committee members, parents, principals and teachers to a portfolio presentation night. Each student will present to a large audience. The criteria could be organization, content, eye contact, voice rate and volume, and the tri-fold, which should be creative, colorful and neat. The most important thing is that the students share with others.