Ready-to-Use Portfolio Development Activities

Jack Umstatter, a master English teacher with over 25 years' experience, is a multiple winner of the Teacher of the Year award. He currently teaches English in the Cold Spring Harbor School District in New York and educationand literature at Dowling College in Oakdale, New York. He is the author of Brain Games!, Hooked on English! and other practical teacher resources published by The Center.

• About the Writing Skills Curriculum Library. About Unit 6.Teacher's Correction Marks.SECTION ONE.Working on the Basics.Activity.Number Title Focus.6.1 Your Portfolio Log Portfolio records.6.2 Portfolio Writing Considerations Portfolio records.6.3 Writing Conference Sheet Portfolio records.6.4 How Much Are You the Same? Writing experiences.6.5 Following the Brainstorm Brainstorming.6.6 Brainstorming Ideas Selecting topics.6.7 Vocabulary Journal Vocabulary building.6.8 Vocabulary Dexterity Word skills.6.9 Grouping the Pieces of Information Organizing ideas.6.10 You as the Editor Editing skills.6.11 Don't Go Belly Up Here! Recognizing idioms.6.12 Sentence Warm-up Sentence skills.6.13 Punctuation Review Punctuation.6.14 Punctuating Dialogue Punctuation.6.15 Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage Review Identifying mistakes.6.16 Essential Terms Writing terminology.6.17 Half and Half Spelling.6.18 Playing with Words That Are Not Words Definition creativity.6.19 Time for a Break Word skills.SECTION TWO.Examining Writing Techniques.Activity.Number Title Focus.6.20 Scooby Doo and Much More Personal narration.6.21 Airline Tickets (Part One) Grammar review.6.22 Airline Tickets (Part Two) Grammar review.6.23 The Summer Tradition Personal narrative.6.24 Imitating Another Student's Writing Narration.6.25 Bricks Narration.6.26 Before Thirty-Something (Part One) Reflective writing.6.27 Before Thirty-Something (Part Two) Reflective writing.6.28. Thinking and Writing Creatively Creative/Reflective writing.6.29 Something New (Part One) Creative/Narrative writing.6.30 Something New (Part Two) Creative/Narrative writing.6.31 Joey Character sketch.6.32 Your Town (Part One) Description.6.33 Your Town (Part Two) Description.6.34. Your Town (Part Three) Description.6.35 Your Town (Part Four) Description.SECTION THREE.Writing Away.Activity.Number Title Focus.6.36 Reaching Them Audience.6.37 Taylor's Bucket Newspaper writing.6.38 You Give and They Follow Writing directions.6.39 French or Spanish? Creative writing.6.40 The Poet in You Poetry writing.6.41 The Neighbor Character sketch.6.42 Meet the Tripps Character sketch.6.43 Story Starters Creative.6.44 New York and Paris Comparison.contrast.6.45 Interpreting Quotations Paraphrasing.6.46 Humpty Dumpty Argument.6.47 Kids' TV Argument.6.48 Andrea Bocelli Reflection.6.49 American Gothic Description.6.50 A Teenager's Stressful Life Persuasion.6.51 The Recall Definition.6.52 An Unpleasant Situation Narration.6.53 A Real Problem Narration.SECTION FOUR.Looking at Literature.Activity.Number Title Focus.6.54 The Literary Me Self-expression.6.55. Tragic Characters Character comparison.6.56 Sketching a Literary Character assessment.6.57 Matching the Character and the Quote Character analysis.6.58 Personal Characteristics Description.6.59 To Follow or Not to Follow- Character analysis That Is the Question.6.60 More Than a Peep of Bo-Peep Character analysis.6.61 The Crucible Literary work synopsis.6.62 Evaluation Strategies Literature assessment.6.63 A Worthwhile Conversation Interviewing authors.6.64 Hamlet-A Man of Action Argument.6.65 Hammer or Anvil? Comparison.contrast.6.66 The Reader's Mind Reader response.6.67 Stepping into the Work Dialogue/Assessment.6.68 Dead Poets Society Movie review.6.69 The Grammatically Correct Poem Poetry/Grammar.6.70 Romeo and Juliet Translation.6.71 Paraphrasing the Constitution Paraphrasing.6.72 Shaping Up Your Shakespeare Paraphrasing.SECTION FIVE.Living and Writing In Today's World.Activity.Number Title Focus.6.73 Advice Columnist Argument.6.74 Ten Tough Proposals Argument.6.75 Three Favorites Argument/Paraphrase.6.76 The Very Necessary ________ Creativity.6.77 Clever Advertising Lines Creativity.6.78 Puns Creativity.6.79 The Personal Crossword Puzzle Creativity/Assessment.6.80 Mr. Peacock Narration.6.81 Clothes Make the Man Description (or Woman or Boy or Girl).6.82 If I Were ________ for a Day Narration.6.83 It Does Not Work and So . . . Letter writing.6.84 Dear Mrs. Wilker Letter writing.6.85 Journal Entry Journal writing.6.86 Just as the Editor Ordered Grammar.6.87 What's in a Name? Description/Argument.6.88 Researching the Awards Research.6.89 What's Going on Around You Recording.6.90 Words to Live By Quotations/Creativity.Answer Key.