Guidelines for Senior Portfolio Narratives

The narrative component of your portfolio is written in two stages,The first narrative is written early in the year and introduces you and your project.  The second narrative is written at the end of the year, when you have completed your portfolio work. Your narratives should be double-spaced and typed. Make sure you save your work on disk for final revisions, and it is a good plan to keep a hard copy as a back up.

First Narrative 

There is no single, correct format to write a narrative, but there are elements that every narrative should address.  These include:

Ideally, your project and future plans should connect to you and to Coe-Brown, but this is not a requirement.

There is no length requirement for the narrative, but a suggested length is two pages. You might write ¾ page about yourself, ¾ page about your project, ¼ page about optional components, and ¼ page about future plans.

In writing about yourself, try NOT to start with My name  is….Rather, be creative. Maybe, start with a quotation ( from a book, a poem, a song, Bible, sports, your agenda book…) and link it to you. Questions you might answer in your narrative are – what are your interests, hobbies, concerns? Are you involved in school? Community? Church? Do you work? Who influences you? How, why? What occupies your time? Have you traveled?  The purpose is to tell about yourself with information other than your academics on your transcript.

In the next part of your narrative, tell what you are doing for your project, and then in detail give your plan of how you plan to accomplish your goal(what will you do, how, when, where, why).

Part of your portfolio requires a conscious plan of how you want to pass – with high honors, honors, or pass.  State your intention and list the components you want to complete, in paragraph format. Restate the wording of the components on your check off list to do this, rather than copy the lengthy statements. For example: I plan to complete the 1-9 Form, take the SAT and ASVAB  tests, attend a cultural event and town meeting, do a job shadow, and use my agenda book during the school year, in order to qualify to pass my portfolio.

The last element should address your possible future plans.  For example, are you planning to apply to four or five colleges (which ones) for a possible major? Or entering the work force? Or military? Your plans can change, and this is a narrative that can change throughout the year. The first narrative is a plan to get started. If your project changes, you need to write a new proposal, and a new narrative.

Second Narrative

The second narrative is written at the end of the year, after you have finished your project and completed all of your optional components.  It is a reflection of what you have done and what you have learned. Again, the style of how you write this is up to you. These are some guideline questions to ask yourself and answer in your essay:

The length of this narrative depends on your experiences. A page and a half to two pages is a suggested guideline.