Portfolios Creating Culture

As I glanced through the Content list of TPS, Miriam Dempsey Page’s Freedom and Identity: Portfolios in a Puerto Rican Writing Class stuck out to me, so I turned to page seventy-seven and began reading. Dempsey Page taught a writing course at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez where she had her students create portfolios. Dempsey Page says “Any final collaborative role in evaluation or assessment will mean more if students are free to choose their topics” (Dempsey Page 77). Even though she used this technique for native Spanish speakers, I believe it can be incorporated into any classroom, much like her other methods of using portfolios. 

I’ll admit that I had difficulties when writing my memoir; I found it hard to figure out how I should write it. A part of me wanted the dreaded rubric just so I could have a better idea of what was expected from me. While it was hard for me to get going on it, the broad guidelines allowed me to do whatever I wanted, and whatever made me proud of my final piece. As a future teacher, I will definitely use this technique for my classroom. Not only will it give my students the opportunity to be creative, it will give me the chance to gain a better insight to their lives and opinions. 

            Miriam Dempsey Page says how the students’ portfolios were a representation of their culture. She says that students typically blur the lines between genres and they typically incorporate “life experiences, background, and culture. As a result, students develop portfolios that explore and reflect not only rhetorical variations and purposes but also the nuances of Puerto Rican culture” (Dempsey Page 77). Each student would write about different topics related to their own life or topics they were passionate about. The completed portfolios gave a greater insight to the Puerto Rican culture; students wrote about traditions from parades and celebrations to different religions, like Voodoo and Espiritismo.  And even though every essay was different, no essay was done “incorrectly.” Each was a part of a whole.