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The primary objective of the Portfolio Composition Program at Middle
Tennessee State University is to improve first-year writing instruction by
making our writing assessment systemic to writing-as-process pedagogy and
by creating a space for writing teachers to discuss their teaching assumptions
and practices.
More specifically, the program aims
 | To extend the scope of process pedagogy to our
assessment practices by evaluating student writing as an ongoing process of
learning, practicing, and maturing as writers. |
| To generate dialogue over our grading standards and to
develop some communal standards for first-year writing. |
| To shift our student's attention from a reductive view
of writing (writing as an academic exercise for its own sake, or writing for the
purpose of earning letter grades) to a more responsible view of writing (writing
as an active process of learning and writing as a social process of
meaning-making and persuading). |
| To initiate new teachers into the community of the
English Department's composition teachers and to offer them a site to discuss
composition theory, practice, research, and disciplinary lore. |
| To provide writing teachers with an open forum to
explore, comment, and critique the assumptions of the department's writing
program, our teaching pedagogy, and our overall community. |
| To develop resources and opportunities for writing
teachers to carry on composition intensive research by drawing upon the
collective expertise of the community of portfolio teachers. |
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