Portfolio Night
February 11, 2019
On January 17, 2019, AHS held Showcase Portfolio Night to celebrate honors english students. Roughly 130 students participated and put their wonderful work out for everyone to read. This year was the eighth year that AHS has had a portfolio night. The theme for this year was Winter Wonderland. The event was held in the cafeteria from 5:30 to 7:30. Key Club and NHS members helped to decorate the cafeteria, along with Mrs. Mowery and some of her classes. The decorators watched youtube videos and hung an estimated 40 snowflakes from the lunchroom ceiling.
Each student’s portfolio is made up of pieces of their writing, poems, or essays. Junior Audrey Young said, “My favorite part of portfolio night was getting to read other people’s portfolios because it is a good reflection of themselves, and their year.” The students who participated were from Mrs. Byrnes 9th grade honors literature class, Mrs. Mowery’s AP Literature, AP Language, and Advanced grammar composition class, and Mrs. Floyd’s honors American Literature class. Mrs. Mowery said, “Portfolio Night drives the curriculum for the first semester of the school year. We complete a lot of writing and revising to prepare. This event gives the students a larger audience to showcase their work, which in turn naturally improves their work.”
Putting a portfolio together comes with a lot of stress and hard work. The students have to pick what they believe to be their best work. Wyatt Miller, sophomore, said, “The hardest part of getting my portfolio ready was finding all of my pieces because I never name them on Google Drive.” Jadynn Johnson, sophomore, said, “The hardest part of getting my portfolio ready was trying to revise all of my previous mistakes.” Carlie McCorkle, sophomore, said, “The hardest part was writing my reflection. I find it really hard to write about myself.” Though all the students were faced with different challenges, they all made it work and pulled through.
On the night of Portfolio Night, parents and students were invited to walk around and read from other students portfolios. Gavin McClellan, sophomore, said, “My favorite part of Portfolio Night was reading other student’s pieces and seeing what their interests are.” As the students walked around, they looked for other pieces that intrigued them and stood out from the others. “Two pieces truly caught my attention. One of them was Madison Smith’s college essay. The other was Emilee Singleton’s piece about Louisville,” said Hayle Singleton, sophomore.
The students also had to come up with a cover for their portfolio that represented them and became more of a theme for their portfolio. Hannah Dellis, sophomore, said, “I chose the cover of my portfolio to focus on my one-word: Celebrate. I want to focus on celebrating the little things in life.” Multiple students focused on their one-word for 2019, while others focused on just representing themselves. Zain Waseem, sophomore, said, “My cover was difficult for me to create. I am no artist, so I googled ideas to just get something started. I drew and drew until I found a good cover for me.”
Portfolio Night is a night that challenges students and makes them better writers. It helps them grow in their writing abilities and in their confidence.
