The Learner Portfolio
​(also see section "The Learner Portfolio and the Higher Level Essay" under HL Essay)

What is it?

The learner portfolio is a central element of Language A: Language and Literature, and is mandatory for all students in both years of the class. This is an individual collection of student work done throughout the two years of the course. It is a place for students to explore and reflect upon literary and non-literary texts, and to establish connections among them and with the areas of exploration and the central concepts in the subject. In the learner portfolio, students will be expected to reflect on their responses to the works being studied in the corresponding area of exploration. 

How will I use it?

Students will also be expected to establish connections between these works and previous ones they have read, and between their perspectives and values as readers and those of their peers. As students progress through the syllabus, it is expected that these connections will be drawn between works within and across areas of exploration, and that they will provide a foundation for the construction of broader knowledge about the transactions between texts, culture and identity.

The learner portfolio is also a space in which students can prepare for assessment. They will use the portfolio to make decisions about the most appropriate and productive connections between the works they have studied and the assessment components. It should be introduced at the beginning of the course and become increasingly important as students progress, and prepare for external and internal assessment.

The learner portfolio must consist of a diversity of formal and informal responses to the literary and non-literary texts studied, which may come in a range of critical and/or creative forms, and in different media. It is the student’s own record of discovery and development throughout the course.

What Will It Document?

  • ​​​ Reflections related to the guiding conceptual questions of the course

  • Reflections on the assumptions, beliefs, and values that frame a response to texts

  • Explorations of literary texts and the insights they offer into social, global and real-world issues

  • Detailed evaluations and critical analysis of works, literary texts or extracts which explore the potential meanings for language used in them

  • Reflections on the connections across a range of texts studied

  • Experiments with form, media and technology

  • Creative writing tasks for exploration of different literary forms and development of the students’ personal responses to works/texts

  • Reading, research and inquiry carried out beyond the classroom experience

  • Records of valued feedback received

  • Reports of classroom or group activities or discussions that explore the diverse values and perspectives negotiated and the process of negotiation in itself

  • Challenges faced and achievements

  • Selections of suitable extracts that could form the basis of the individual oral

  • Instances of self-assessment to evaluate the student’s own progress.​​
It is expected that the work necessary to meet the requirements in all assessment components will have evolved and been drawn from the contents of the portfolio. To that effect, each student’s portfolio should include at the end the “Works studied form” detailing the works that have been selected as part of the course and how they have been made to interact with the assessment components. The assessment section contains suggestions on how to make use of the learner portfolio in the preparation for each assessment component.