Note:  Requirements for the portfolio may change as the term progresses;  changes will be announced/discussed in class.  If you are absent, be sure to ask if any changes were made to the portfolio requirements.

Your portfolio should be a thin (1/2 inch should be OK) lightweight 3-hole binder (paper is fine).  You will be inserting pages throughout the term, so consider ease of use when you purchase one.  The binder should be clearly divided into the four sections below.  All work should be clearly dated. I will ask you to turn in your portfolio once during the term to make suggestions and see how you are doing, and again at the end of the term.

You are expected to do approximately 6 hours of homework every week, including doing the practice tests in the Learning Center.  You should keep two separate pages (and add more later as needed) in this part:  one page should log your homework dates, tasks, and time spent; the other page should log only Learning Center TOEFL practice--dates, tasks, and time spent.  Log blanks are included in the course packet for you to photocopy.  Below is an example of both kinds of  logs:

Homework Log for Jane Doe

DATE	TIME (# hours)	TASK DESCRIPTION
1/6	2	analyzed practice test #1, filled out error analysis page
1/7	1	reviewed top priority errors in textbook
1/8	0.5	reviewed strategies

Learning Center Log  for Jane Doe

DATE	TIME (# hours)	TASK DESCRIPTION
1/7	0.75	50 TOEFL Tests (tests #1 and 2)
1/8	1	50 TT (tests 3 and 4)

[How will this part be assessed at the end of the term?  By quantity and precision/accuracy.  Quantity is how much time you spent on average doing homework and practice outside of class.  A = 5-6 hours/week; B = 4-5 hrs/wk; C = 3-4 hrs/wk; D = 2-3 hrs/wk; F = 0-2 hrs/wk.  Precision means identifying each task specifically, such as book page numbers, practice test titles, etc.  Accuracy means being correct in the amount of time you put down.  DO NOT try to remember a week later how much time you spent doing a task--write it down as soon as you finish!  Accuracy also means being honest and not cheating on the time; if I see that you put down 6 hours to do a structure practice test, I know that there's something wrong.]

Every time you do a practice test, either from the book, the packet, or in the Learning Center, you should look carefully at the kinds of questions you missed, and their frequency.  Through this analysis, you will learn what you need to work on most. There are  hard copies of analysis sheets in the course packet that you can use for this.  Keep the handouts clean, and make photocopies to write your analyses. If you find these too cumbersome and detailed, you may simply make a list of the kinds of errors.  For example, on a structure test, a list might look something like this:
#5, 12, 27--adjective clauses
#3--pronoun reference
#32, 40--noun clauses
Whatever method you use, be sure to write down the test title, source, and date that you took the test on each analysis.

[How will this part be assessed at the end of the term? By quantity and accuracy.  In order to pass the course, you must have analyzed all of the required practice tests (see the Calendar).  Additional practice tests from the packet (tests G and on) and the Learning Center will also increase the quantity, and thus raise your grade on this part of the portfolio.  Accuracy means identifying correctly the kinds of questions you missed (e.g. classifying them).  This can be difficult at first, and we will sometimes take time in class to do this on required tests.  For some of the CBT practice tests in the Learning Center, you can print out an analysis--this is fine.]

Every time you do a practice test in class, at home, or in the Learning Center, please write some short comments about the test, and a summary of your problems with it.  Some of your comments might be  about time, stress, strategies, or other problems during the test.  However, you should always have 1) a summary of what you think your greatest problems were on the test (be specific--what kinds of questions?) and 2) a suggestion to yourself for solving those problems.  Two or three sentences is enough for each test, and you can write these at the end of your analysis of each test.  Again, be sure to write these as soon as you finish an analysis--it will save you time in the end.

[How will this part be assessed at the end of the term? By the quality of thought that you put into it.  Below are two examples:  the first is an example of comments which are not very thoughtful, and hence a bad example; the second example is good, and demonstrates more than superficial thought.]

Example A (bad):  Not enough time.  Adjective clauses were a problem.  Solution:  study more.

Example B (good):  Not enough time.  I spent too much time on the difficult questions instead of skipping them.  Adjective clauses were the main problem, but difficult vocabulary also interfered with my understanding on several other questions.  This also caused me to spend more time figuring out the meanings of the questions.  Solutions:  1) watch the time more carefully--put my watch in front of me; 2) practice looking at and analyzing functions of words in the sentence if I don't know the vocab; 3) look at more examples of adjective clause questions in the TOEFL books in the Learning Center.

This section should include new words from practice tests that you believe are important.  I recommend including two or more types of items here:  idioms and phrasal verbs from the listening sections of tests, and key words and synonyms from the reading sections of tests. Of course, you may include any words you think are important, but they must have previously been unknown to you. I also strongly recommend studying vocabulary from the AcademicWord List, at this site:  http://www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/research/awl/index.html

Write 1) the date of the word's entry; 2) the word; 3) its synonym, meaning, or a drawing of it, and 4) and other information that will help you remember it.

Note:  If you prefer to use cards, rather than making a list, that's fine.  Just be sure that they're well organized, dated, and included in a packet of the portfolio when it's collected.

[How will this part be assessed at the end of the term? By quantity, in comparison with other students in the class, and by regularity.  Regularity means working on vocabulary throughout the term, and NOT entering a hundred words the night before the teacher looks at the portfolio.]

There are only two essays required:  the first is due around the middle of the term (date to be announced), and the second is due in the last week of the term (date to be announced).  Reflection means thinking about what you've done and your experiences, analyzing them, and commenting on them with the goal of improvement in mind.  The purpose of these essays is to ask you to think about mistakes you made and problems you had, so that you can avoid the same mistakes in the future, and work toward solving your problems.  The essays are really personal research projects:  through looking at and analyzing data you've collected from your practice tests, you should be able to answer the questions "What are my main problems?" and "What can I do to solve those problems so that I can get a higher TOEFL score?". The essays do not need to be long and formal--two to three typed pages is fine, and I expect you to use the first person ("I").   Below are descriptions of the content you should include in each essay.

1. Name/identify the practice tests on which you are basing your reflections.  A good essay should be based on all of the assigned homework tests and in-class tests done so far.
2. Identify your strengths in terms of strategies.  Identify your weaknesses in terms of strategies.  Identify solutions that you can implement to correct your weaknesses.
3. Identify your strongest section on the TOEFL (Listening, Structure, or Reading).  Identify your weakest section.  Identify what you think might be the cause of this being your weakest section.  Describe a plan to improve your weakest section.
4.  Identify the kinds of questions you miss most often in the weakest section. Identify what you think might be the cause of missing these kinds of questions.  Describe a plan to increase your accuracy with these kinds of questions.
5. Summarize your plans for improvement, and make any other comments you wish.

1. Name/identify the practice tests on which you are basing your reflections.  Again, a good essay should be based on all of the assigned homework tests and in-class tests.
2. Evaluate your strategies.  Describe improvements or changes that  you have made in your strategies this term.
3. Evaluate your improvement on the weakest section you identified in Essay #1.  How much did you improve?  If you didn't improve, why not?  Describe steps that you took this term to improve your weakest section.
4. Evaluate your improvement on specific kinds of questions that you missed frequently.  Describe the steps you took to avoid missing these questions on tests.
5. Summarize 1) your improvement in general, and 2) further work that you plan to do before taking the "real" TOEFL.  Include any other comments about your performance on the TOEFL.

Remember--keep your portfolio up-to-date.  A few minutes after each test will save you hours in the end.