Introduction
On this Wikiwijs page you can find assignments and information that will help you put together a Language Portfolio...
- a list of criteria of what should be in each term's Language Portfolio;
- information on when, where and how to hand in your Portfolio;
- a language test to check your level of English;
- some getting to know you writing assignments to start off the school year;
- information on the assessment of your Portfolio;
- useful links and tips to help with your English.
Language Portfolio
Assignment
What?
You will hand in a Language Portfolio two times this year. Each portfolio will contain:
- Any hand-outs / assignments you do in the English BloX;
- (only in P1:) Entry level test & Getting to know you assignments;
- Listening Skills;
- Wasp Reporter Web Task;
- Writing skills assignments from Wasp Reporter;
- Grammar and vocabulary assignments;
- Optional assignments.
When?
The order in which you work on the different assignments is mostly up to you; your English teacher will suggest to include activities in your Portfolio during BloX, too. Don't forget that you can use a lot of the work you put into your Wasp Reporter for your Portfolio, too. It's not meant to be a whole load of extra work!
How?
You can sign up for English BloX to work on the Portfolio, or organise your own time as you wish.
In the menu on the left, you will find the different ingredients of the Language Portfolio. For each, you will find:
- Assignment: the amount and quality of work you need to hand in for this particular part of the portfolio;
- Assessment: what standards your work needs to meet;
- Materials & Ideas: a list of materials you can choose from and/or ideas how you can work on this particular part.
Planning & Deadlines
Weekly time management
Per week, you should set aside at least 1,5 hours of working time for your English portfolio. If English is difficult for you, you might want to spend even more time on it.
Deadlines
You need to hand in your Language Portfolio in P1 and P3. You can find the deadlines in your work planner.
Help
BloX
There are English BloX on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday that you can sign up for to work on your English Language Portfolio.
Availability Mrs W
Working days: Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.
Feel free to contact me via 
Teams or e-mail at l.wams@hvc.nl.
Language Test
You do this assignment in P1 only!
Is your English good enough for senior year?
Welcome to HVX High, your senior years!
First, we need to make sure that your English is good enough for senior year. Follow the steps below to find out.
➜ Do the
Placement Test online. Your result will show you a level and a CEFR code: write down the level you scored.
➜ Compare your result to the table below. Which emoji describes your English level?
➜ Write a memo in your notebook in which you...
- share your result of the placement test, including your English-emoji;
- describe how you feel about English in your senior year;
- describe whether there is anything about English that you are worried about and/or that you would like extra help with.
➜ Take a picture of your memo and upload it to 
Seesaw.
➜ Discuss your note with your personal coach and with an English coach.
Result table
Getting to know you assignments
Assignment
You only have to do this assignment in P1!
Instructions
Since you're new in HVX high (and even if you're not that new), we'd like to get to know you a bit better! In the Antique Room, you will find three assignments on paper that you can choose from.
Assessment
Pick up a copy of a get-to-know-you-assignment in the Antique Room and get to work. Make sure you complete the worksheet fully and that it looks appealing before you include it in your portfolio.
Materials & Ideas
Missed the hand-outs in the Antique Room? No worries, you can download them here and print them!
Writing Skills
Criteria
Instructions
There are some writing skills assignment that you will do in
your Wasp Reporter work. Part of the assignment is always to get feedback on your work and improve it. In your portfolio you will include the improved versions of these writing assignments.
Assessment
Self-assessment
➜ Check: Have you finished, asked for feedback and improved your writing assignments?
➜ Then, look at the rubric below to assess your own writing skills.
➜ Write a note in 
Seesaw in which you describe your self-assessment.
| |
WOW |
Good work |
Good try |
Needs more work |
| Organisation |
- My writing is organised effectively, using paragraphs, titles and headings where appropriate.
- My writing is consistent and appropriate in tone.
|
- I use some paragraphs to organise my writing.
- My writing is mostly consistent and appropriate in tone.
|
- I can get the message across okay.
- I can only write in an informal way, but at least I do that consistently.
|
- It is unclear what my writing is supposed to achieve.
- Sometimes my writing is informal, sometimes it is really formal, or I let ChatGPT do most of my writing so it isn't really mine.
|
| Use of Language |
- I use a lot of different words appropriately.
- I can use a lot of different grammatical forms correctly. My sentences vary in length and complexity.
- I hardly make any spelling mistakes.
|
- I use most of my words appropriately.
- I can use basic grammatical forms correctly and sometimes try to make my sentences vary in length and complexity.
- I might make a couple of spelling mistakes.
|
- I use basic words appropriately, but there is a bit of repetition in word choice.
- I can use basic grammatical forms mostly correctly .
- I make some spelling mistakes.
|
- I use basic words with lots of errors, or I write in Louis van Gaal English.
- My grammar is so shaky that my writing is hard to understand sometimes.
- I make a lot of spelling mistakes.
|
| Feedback |
- I have asked feedback from both fellow students and my English coach.
- I have made improvements to my text following the feedback.
- I have included both the first and the improved version and reflected on the changes I had to make.
|
- I have asked feedback from my English coach.
- I have made improvements to my text following the feedback.
|
- I have asked feedback from a fellow student.
- I have handed in the first version with the feedback underlined / scribbled in the margin.
|
- I haven't asked for any feedback, so this is my first version.
|
Assignments & Ideas
Wasp Reporter
You can use the current issue or any back issue of the Wasp Reporter and check out the various writing assignments there. If you follow the Work Planner for English, you will find a writing assignment with both 'Nightmare on Lake Superior' and 'Slickyboy'.
Online Materials
You can also find good writing material on the following websites:
Listening Skills
Criteria
Instructions
You will work on your listening skills this term, by handing in at least two listening assignments. Your assignments should all be different audio/video types; check the list below.
For each assignment, you will need to:
- summarise the story (if fictional) or main items (if non-fictional) of the audio/video you listened to;
- make a mini-dictionary of at least ten words and phrases you have heard in your listening (this may mean you will need to listen to it more than once);
- evaluate how listening to this particular audio/video fragment could improve your English;
- collect your work for steps 1-3 in one document to add to your Portfolio
Audio/video types
- TV series (episode min. 30 minutes);
- film;
- news broadcast;
- talkshow;
- announcements
- radio interview;
- podcast;
- speech / lecture.
Assessment
Self-assessment
➜ Check: Have you finished and handed in both listening assignments?
➜ Then, look at the rubric below to assess your own listening skills.
➜ Write a note in
Seesaw in which you describe your self-assessment.
| |
WOW |
Good work |
Good try |
Needs more work |
| Dialect / Accent |
I could pinpoint the dialect / accent used and had no trouble understanding what was said. |
I understood most of what was said and could recognise it if the dialect was not standard English. |
I understood parts of the speech, but dialects / accents can throw me sometimes. |
I didn't get it, it was too difficult to follow. |
| Details |
I got all the details and made the notes to prove it! |
I think I got most of the details. I tried to take notes while listening. |
I didn't get all the details but enough to understand what they were saying. |
I thought it was really hard to get any details, I had enough trouble keeping up with the main idea. |
| Context / Issue |
I knew about the issues discussed and I could understand references and the associations to a wider context. |
I knew a bit about the issues discussed and I could use my knowledge to understand more. |
I didn't know much about the issues discussed but I think I have an idea of what it's about. |
I had no idea what they were talking about and I still don't... |
| Focus |
I am able to listen with focus, blocking out everything else, and I don't want to miss anything. |
I am able to focus most of the time, I don't think I missed anything. |
I try to focus but it doesn't really work all the time. I guess I got the main idea. |
I couldn't focus at all, or I was trying to do multiple things at the same time. |
Assignments & Ideas
Wasp Reporter
The Wasp Reporter has audio recordings of all texts, but there is one special assignment dedicated to listening skills per volume. You can access the audio recording using the QR code on page 2 and find the accompanying assignments in the back of your Student File.
Online Materials
You can also find good listening material on the following websites:
Wasp Reporter Web Task
You can find a Wasp Reporter Web Task in the online edition of Wasp Reporter. There is one web task for each level of Wasp Reporter articles. In P1 this is a web task that goes deeper into the politics and history of South Korea, accompanying the article 'Slickyboy'. Do the Webtask and include a summary in your Portfolio.
Vocabulary
Instructions
During your work you will hear or read a lot of new English words. In this assignment you're going to build a vocabulary file to help you remember these new words.
Step-by-step plan (digital)
- Open the app Pages and make a new file.
- Name this file Vocabulary File English Cambridge Portfolio Term [__fill in__].
- Make a table with 4 columns and 26 rows
- Fill the column's headers as follows below.
Step-by-step plan (notebook)
- Dedicate the back of your notebook to vocabulary.
- Draw 4 columns on your paper.
- Fill the column's headers as follows below.
| English |
Grammatical category |
Example sentence |
Dutch translation and/or English definition |
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
(etc) |
➜ During your portolio work, you're going to fill this table with new words you see or hear that you want to remember. The table below is filled in as an example.
| English |
Grammatical category |
Example sentence |
Dutch translation and/or English definition |
| transferred |
verb (from transfer) |
Passengers were transferred to Heathrow airport. |
move from one place to another |
| shenanigans |
noun (only used in plural) |
The chairman was accused of financial shenanigans. |
secret or dishonest activity or manoeuvring |
| palatial |
adjective |
Diana's palatial apartment in Kensington Gardens... |
resembling a palace in being spacious and splendid |
| between a rock and a hard place |
idiom |
the alternative was equally untenable—she was caught between a rock and a hard place. |
faced with two equally undesirable alternatives.
|
Grammar
In your portfolio, you get to choose which grammatical items you feel you want to improve most. Is it verb tenses? Is it sentence building? Is it the difference between much and many? Or did you come across a Wasp Reporter exercise that got your interested?
On this website you will find a grand list of all possible grammatical topics. This website has a handy dandy reference chart of grammatical items and the corresponding level. 4H should be working towards level B1 or B1+.
➜ Choose two grammatical items you want to improve this term.
➜ Look up the explanation and do the exercises on both websites linked above. Make screenshots of your results.
➜ Make a summary of your grammatical items on paper or in Keynote. Include examples, explanations and maybe even a few exercises?
➜ Collect the screenshots and your summaries in one Pages / Keynote document and add it to your Language Portfolio.
Useful Links
Get to Know You 1 star.pdf
