Beginning with an "All About Me" autobiographical essay in September, the students wrote an astonishing variety of material encompassing the whole of their sixth grade year.

The notebooks contained, essays on class novels, literary critiques of books they read, current events articles, Social Studies projects, Black History reports, Science Projects, World’s Fair PowerPoint Presentations, a classroom newspaper, class trip essays, class workshop experiences, journal writing, short stories, project brochures, and letters. 

Technology has played a crucial role in developing and maintaining the writing portfolio. Frequent visits to our computer lab, as well as using our classroom computers, enabled my students to increase their productivity, learn valuable technology skills, utilize current software and have a new appreciation for their individual writing skills.

Next year, as seventh grade students, their new English teacher will be given their Sixth Grade Writing Portfolio notebook. Their new teacher will be able to peruse the entries for each quarter and have an idea of the capabilities of her students. Their new teacher can then return the notebooks to each student. In addition, at the end of this school year, 1999-2000, my sixth grade students will be given a CD-ROM disk containing a copy of their writing portfolio.