Situating Portfolios

Book excerpt: Situating Portfolios is both reflective and forward-looking, practice-oriented but well-grounded in theory. Kathleen Yancey and Irwin Weiser bring together thirty-one writing teachers from diverse levels of instruction, institutional settings, and regions to create an inviting volume on current practice in portfolio writing assessment. The contributors here reflect on the explosion in portfolio practice over the last decade, why it happened, what comes next; discuss portfolios in hypertext, the web, and other electronic spaces; report on current and new contexts, from emergent literacy to faculty development, in which portfolios now appear; and consider emerging trends and issues that are involving portfolios in teacher assessment, faculty development, and graduate student experience. An energetic volume, Situating Portfolios gathers a wide range of experience and thinking into one stimulating discussion. It's a book that will be of interest to writing teachers and teacher educators at all levels.