awd portfolio task

New CP introduction | Karen Widl | May 15th, 2005

Greetings from Austria!

Being a new CP on the course and a lurker of this discussion list, as well as the very useful archive list, I thought it might be a good idea to finally "come out" and introduce myself. My name is Karen Widl and I've lived in Austria for the last six years, teaching English to children in a bilingual primary school. Our school uses Native Speakers to team-teach "English Across the Curriculum" and for the general English hours that the children have a few times a week. I joined Aston (officially registered this past April) to improve my teaching and knowledge in the field of TESOL, and I hope to branch out into course and materials design for TEYL. Currently I'm working through the FND module with great enthusiasm and seem to be making progress through the units at a steady pace, although I feel like my academic writing is a bit rusty. Hopefully it gets better with time!

I do have a specific question regarding the AWD Portfolio task in the FND. I did read through the archive discussion regarding appropriate length of the text that we choose, but I'm a bit stumped on how to go about writing my analysis directly on the photocopy. Perhaps it seems like a trivial question, but when I attempted to complete the task (using my best writing possible), even my husband had no clue what I was trying to accomplish! I think that I tried to write too much in such a small space, next to the areas that apply to the SPRE format, that it became very difficult to understand my point. Can someone please let me know how they accomplished this task and what the tutors are looking for in ways of the written analysis (and how much) that I provide on the copy? I'd really appreciate it!

This list seems like such a great way to communicate with other CPs and I hope to use it often. I've read through most of the archive and it's already given me so much information and confidence, that I feel like I've been on the course longer than I really have. Thank you!

Karen Widl
Prein an der Rax, Austria

AWD Portfolio task | Jerry Talandis Jr. | May 15th, 2005

Hi Karen,

Welcome to the list!

Nice to see that you're into teaching kids. I teach a lot myself. I hope we can discuss TYL in this space in the future. For now, however, you have more pressing concerns:

I'm a bit stumped on how to go about writing my analysis directly on the photocopy. Perhaps it seems like a trivial question, but when I attempted to complete the task (using my best writing possible), even my husband had no clue what I was trying to accomplish! I think that I tried to write too much in such a small space, next to the areas that apply to the SPRE format, that it became very difficult to understand my point.

Well, like you noted, it seems that you were trying to do to much. Less is more. You only need to identify key points. If I remember correctly, I used different colors for each part, then circled or underlined words or phrases that signaled anything interesting, such as the beginnings of a new section. I think I elaborated on the text in a few paragraphs of write up. So, you can label the text clearly, and then go into it a bit on another piece of paper. At least you could back in 2001 when I did this task. Your choice of text is very important. If you pick out a simple one that clearly shows an SPRE format, the tutors will be impressed!

If you handwriting is a problem, you could try scanning the article (saving it as a jpeg file), importing it into Word (or something), then typing in your comments on or around it.

I hope this helps.

Jerry
Japan

Re: New CP Introduction | David Anderson | May 15th, 2005

Hi Karen,

On the last visit to this area, Nur suggested the use of highlighting pens to actually mark the SPRE elements in the text. This leaves more room round the margins for comments. (I thought that was a brilliant idea, though unfortunately I didn't know about it when I did FND.)

Another possibility is to photocopy your text into the centre of A3 paper to give yourself room all the way round the text, though I don't think you are expected to write a huge amount. I think being concise, as with the other FND tasks, is more important.

Hope it goes well,

David Anderson
Abu Dhabi

Re: New CP Introduction | Mike McDonald | May 15th, 2005

Hi, Karen. I understand what you mean. I used 4 different highlight pens (yellow, orange, pink, and green) to show the SPRE sections of the text I was analysing. That saved a lot of space for other comments.

Mike McDonald

Re: New CP Introduction | Caroline Cooke | May 15th, 2005

Dear Karen

I asked the same question and got this answer from Nur:

Question:

A quick query on the Unit 2 portfolio task - How long is a "short" article? I haven't found anything as short as the example from the unit. Would 3 pages of an ELT Journal article, or 2 pages of a MET article (excluding materials used by the teacher) be regarded as "short"? The other problem is how to write all the information on the photocopy - or do you mean we should write S1, S2 etc. and then refer to them in the analysis?

Answer:

3 pages sounds a little too long for the purposes of the task. 1-2 pages would be fine.

You would not need to put all your analysis on the actual article itself. You can mark S1, S2, etc. on the actual article; you can also use colour coding if you like to highlight appropriate lexical signaling, but you would be expected to present your detailed comments separately in an essay format and send it in with the article.

In fact, I ended up using an article that was a bit too long, but I only gave a detailed analysis of part of it (the more interesting paragraphs), justifying what I had chosen to analyse. This was accepted and I passed the FND!

Hope this helps.

Caroline Cooke
Madrid, Spain

Re: AWD Portfolio task | Yvonne Beaudry | May 16th, 2005

Karen,

I also considered photocopying my A4 article onto the centre of an A3 sheet and writing around it but I really didn't want to make anyone read my handwriting. Also, I haven't handed in hand-written work since high school, so it felt a bit strange.

If you are comfortable with using text boxes and wrapping, and if your article is available online (I used Internet TESL Journal) you can try this -

I put selected words and passages in bold and planted a nearby text box with my comments. This way all the comments were near the relevant part of the original. It took a bit of juggling to make everything line up perfectly but Muna thought it was a good idea. From her reaction, I don't think it had been done before. I can send a copy to anyone who wants to see how it turned out.

Yvonne

Re: AWD Portfolio task | Karen Widl | May 16th, 2005

I just wanted to thank everyone that responded to my query about the AWD portfolio task. There were some great suggestions and it seems that a clear majority used the "colourful" approach...something that I will definately use in my approach to the task. It was interesting to see that most of you had the option of writing up a separate detailed analysis...something that I didn't realize was an option. I just sent an e-mail to Muna to clarify this point though. If this is the case, then I feel so much more at ease with the task, considering that I have already drafted up an outline (SPRE format) of my article. Of course, I'm not completely sure if my analysis is correct, but at least if I have the option of writing a short paragraph, I can justify and defend it better.

Thanks again.....really glad I found this discussion list!!