My name is Kareema Williams and I am a student in English 207, Exploring Literacies. I am a senior graduating in December of 2009. This is my portfolio of all of the work I have done since the beginning of this class. My portfolio showcases my writing skills and abilities. The Portfolio also exhibits the skills that I now have in making and analyzing PSAs, as well as writing a resume and cover letter. The goal of my portfolio is show my potential and what I am capable of doing. Another goal for my portfolio, which is the main goal, is to show what my understanding of literacy is. As you explore my portfolio, you will see what kind of role literacy plays in my life, as well as what I thought literacy was in the beginning of this class, compared to what I think literacy is at the end of this class.

This portfolio demonstrates my learning throughout the semester because it challenged me to go back and compare all of my work and show how many different literacies there are. After doing these assignments and putting together my portfolio, I have realized that literacy comes in all different forms. For example, putting together this portfolio made me look twice at the three units we completed. I noticed how there are our own personal literacies, professional literacies, and technological literacies. These assignments in these units taught me that I have literacies in all three areas, which are different from other people around me. As you will see in this portfolio, I have learned a lot about literacy, and as you go through each unit, you will see how my knowledge of literacy has increased which is shown through my work.

When I first came into this class I was asked what literacy was to me. I thought literacy was knowing how to read and write because that was all I knew about literacy.  But now I know that literacy is in fact being able to read and write, but also understanding how to do and use certain things. For example, I learned that I am demonstrating a literacy just by picking up my phone and texting my friends, or taking food orders at work. All of my literacies are presented in a PowerPoint in unit 1, which was the unit on personal literacies, in which I had to look deep into how important literacy is in my life. This was challenging at first because I was thinking too hard about it. I was thinking that I had to think of all of the different ways that I write, or the different types of things I read. 

Something that I found very helpful in this class when doing these assignments was peer review. Peer review helped in giving me feedback and other opinions. This is always beneficial because whenever I was sturggling with something, my peer review group would help me in giving me ideas or explaining something I did not understand. Something else that played a major role in this portfolio and these assignments were reflections and revisions. These encouraged me to think twice about my work and improve my work. Reflections helped me in looking back on my assignment and actually paying attention to what I accomplished in the assignment and what I learned from it. For example, in unit 2, which was my favorite unit because it was the most interesting, I did a rhetorical analysis. I really enjoyed this project because it made me think outside the box when watching commercials, and afterwards, I realized how much I learned from doing so. 

Overall this class and these projects taught me a lot about literacy and how there are so many types. These assignments challenged me in being more descriptive to help explain less obvious literacies, and they also helped me in learning more about myself and how I achieved more than I thought. Hopefully, after looking through my portfolio you will learn about me and my literacy achievements as well. Enjoy!