Guidelines for Hispanic Studies Portfolio

You should begin work on your senior portfolio as early as possible. You must fill out the thesis/portfolio proposal form indicating that you plan to complete the portfolio. The process of elaborating and presenting your portfolio records your progress in the Spanish language and demonstrates your cross-cultural awareness between products, practices, and perspectives of Hispanic cultures, and displays your ability to make connections across disciplines. The portfolio is initially elaborated in consultation with your Spanish advisor (identified upon declaration of the major). However, you should feel free to consult and share work and ideas with various members of the department faculty. To aid in the initial preparation of the portfolio, if you decide to pursue this option, you are required to attend a workshop offered during the first weeks of the fall semester each year.

All portfolios submitted to the department in fulfillment of the Spanish major must be based on the prebuilt department electronic template (webpage), and consist of the following parts (adapted from Global Language Portfolio):

1. Welcome Page: a brief-self introduction and overview of portfolio contents
2. Biography: a summary of the individual Spanish learning experience at Bates, off-campus and in the community, and a self-assessment in the 5 skill areas: listening, reading, writing, spoken production, and spoken interaction.
3. Dossier: a presentation of evidence of Spanish communication skills in the following three areas (must provide at least one item for each): presentational (speaking and writing), interpretative (reading, listening, and viewing), and interpersonal (cross-cultural comprehension); items in this section should include the three final papers or other summative projects written/created for each of the three 300-level courses taken to fulfill the Hispanic Studies major requirement.
4. Reflection: a personal statement that includes self-assessment of strengths and weaknesses in Spanish, insights into cultural products, practices, and perspectives of Hispanic cultures, and reflections upon various learning experiences; the statement must be grammatically correct, well-organized, and demonstrate the capacity to synthesize experience as a Spanish major.

Finished portfolios are due by the eighth week of the semester in which you are enrolled in the thesis/portfolio. In order to fully assess your communication skills and evaluate your portfolio overall, the department faculty will invite you to make an oral presentation highlighting the content of your project sometime during the last two weeks of the semester in which you are enrolled in thesis/portfolio.

The portfolio will be read and evaluated by the entire faculty in terms of the following criteria:

1. content and evidence
2. reflection
3. language use (accuracy and style)
4. process (development and editing)