I Had My Students Include a Resume In Their ePortfolios, and Here's How I Did It
- Kristi My
- Jul 16, 2024
- 4 min read
One of the many opportunities that I had as a graduate student at the University of Central Florida (UCF) was the opportunity to teach English Composition. It is a really interesting position, to be a graduate student pursuing an education, and then also simultaneously hold the position of leading a classroom of my own. There were lots of pros and cons to putting myself in that position, but I think one of the benefits for my students is that I tried to tailor assignments to benefit them in the long term.
Maybe it was just the perspective that I was trained with, but I was led to believe that the students coming through my required general education course had a belief that this course would not matter to them in the grand scheme of their degrees. So when I went in with the general framework of what I had to do, I tried to keep this in mind and change that perspective for them.
One of the ways I chose to do that was to require that they include a resume in their ePortfolios, which was their final project for English Composition II. Here is how I went about it.
What is an ePortfolio?
Similar to how some people would carry file folders around to showcase their work, an ePortfolio is an electronic version. It goes beyond what a resume is by providing a collection of work over time such as skills, experiences, achievements, and learning. Since it's digital, it has the advantage of also showcasing multimedia elements to maintain a reader's attention.
At UCF, the typical final project of an English Composition course would be an ePortfolio. It was so highly encouraged as part of the course that part of the required textbook also included access to Portfolio Keeping: A Guide for Students, Third Edition, by Nedra Reynolds and Elizabeth Davis. It was a great resource for the students to take with them, and I still have my copy where I've highlighted plenty and written my notes in the margins.
As the facilitators of our classrooms, Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) were allowed to create our rubrics of what we wanted the students to keep in mind when they created their ePortfolios. After teaching English Composition I, I decided that one of the ePortfolio requirements that I would have for English Composition II would be to include a resume.
Why Should Students Include a Resume?
There's this idea in the world that college is supposed to prepare you for the career you want. I think there's a generalization that this only applies to classes related to the students' chosen major. That is an idea I would disagree with, especially when it comes to a subject like English. However, instead of picking up the sword to fight against that idea every day of class, I decided it would be better done little by little.
One of these little ways was to include a resume in their ePortfolio at the end of the semester. While I am not hiring any of my students, having them include a resume allows me to analyze how well they can work within a given genre, whether or not they understand how to write in multiple ways, and I am assured that there is a little something they can take with them beyond my class.
The benefit for my students would be that they have had exposure to a genre they will need down the line as they apply for jobs, and they will have had their resumes proofread and edited by me and their fellow peers. Essentially, I saw this requirement as a benefit for both of us.
How Did You Teach Resume Writing?
When the other GTAs and I would get together, our common vein of conversation would be what we were doing and how we were doing it. So I think it is fair for me to talk about my process and approach here. I typically have a PowerPoint to structure each of my classes, so I will include images of those slides here as well.
First, I would review what a resume is and why it is important in today's job market. The main idea is that a resume is an employer's first impression of who you are as a potential employee. It can be the difference between whether or not you get an interview for the desired job you want, so it should make you stand out from other applicants however you can.
Next, I would discuss the different ways to format a resume. There are three different ways, including a chronological resume, a functional resume, and a combination resume. It was important to discuss the pros and cons of these formats so that they understood them and could properly choose the best one for themselves. After, I would go into the other details to consider from the genre, such as font.
Of course, students then have to understand why I am allowed to pull into the job market when I was supposed to be teaching them English Composition. So of course, I brought in common rhetoric found in the genre of resumes and how language is important for creating the ideal resume. This is applicable, as English Composition is housed in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric at UCF.
I would then end my lecture by giving them some of my advice and giving them an example to look at. This would then give them time in class to work on their resumes and collaborate with their peers to edit and proofread if they are interested. They can also compare their work against the examples that I gave to them. This is exactly how I went about including resumes in my English Composition II classroom.
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