An effective way to make sure students write every day is to make a journal a requirement of the portfolio. Journals allow for free-flow thinking and provide an opportunity for students to express and record their thoughts. Check to make sure the students are writing, but don’t grade their entries.
The essays assembled in the portfolio should include fiction and nonfiction and reflect the state curriculum guidelines. Grade 7 requirements, for instance, may require students to write descriptive essays, narratives and expository pieces. When it is time to evaluate the students at the end of the year, have them pick one or two essays from each of the categories.
Encourage students to write creative poetry to include in their portfolios. Depending on the state curriculum guides, there may be specific theme poetry students are expected to write. Also give them a poetry writing assignment where they are encouraged to be creative and use their imaginations and include it in the portfolio.
In addition to written work, have the portfolios cross curriculum line. If the students are studying poetry or fiction, for instance, have them draw pictures to include in their writing portfolios. The more interdisciplinary you can make the portfolios, the more effective a collection it becomes. Similarly, when you are teaching students to write dialogue, have them make a recording of what they produce and include it in their portfolio.
At the beginning of the year have the students write a piece – it could be in the form of a letter to the teacher – outlining what they hope to learn about writing during the year. At the end of the year, have them do a self-evaluation about whether or not they met their goals. The self-evaluation process is an opportunity for students to assess their own work and comment on how their writing skills have evolved over the year.