SESSION 2B - Shared session
Part A
Bianka Malecka & James Heath
The Feedback Awakens: Enhancing Writing Revision with E-portfolios

Abstract
Would you like your students to review and redraft their writing more? This session presents the results from an Action Research project which used e-portfolios to engage students in the feedback and revision process. We used Wikispaces as a platform for students to build their writing portfolios throughout a 20-week period.  The writing tasks combined a process and genre approach. Writing instruction and pre-writing tasks were undertaken in class, while the wiki facilitated students’ drafts, peer review, rewriting, teacher feedback and final drafts in a highly visible, but supportive online environment. This resulted in often insightful peer-feedback, online discussion between authors and reviewers, and multiple redrafts of written work. The session will present analysis of the research data collected, examples of students’ writing and practical discussion of how to implement e-portfolios in different contexts.

Bio
Bianka Malecka is currently a teacher at UNSW Institute of Languages. She has been an ESL instructor in tertiary institutions and language colleges in Poland and Australia since 1997. She has taught direct entry programs, Cambridge exam preparation courses and EAP. Bianka holds an MA in TESOL, the Cambridge Celta and a Certificate IV in TESOL. Her research interests include creative uses of technology and personalised learning / teaching.  

James Heath currently teaches at UNSW Institute of Languages. He has taught English in Australia and Latin America, including EAP, Cambridge exam preparation and business writing courses. James shares lesson plans and teaching ideas at his website www.eltideas.com.

Bianka and James were runners up in the English Australia Action Research in ELICOS award for their 2015 project “Exploring the effects of e-portfolios on students’ writing skills.”