First introduced in 1985 at California State University, Northridge's Pan African Studies Department by Professor Johnie Scott as the Word Power Project , what has since come to be known as the Issues and Concepts Portfolio is a term project focused in increasing vocabulary, spelling, sentence and paragraph variety, skills in summarizing information, the ability to read for the major ideas in a short composition, and finally to develop a fluency in the events and human interactions to make modern civilization work. The Portfolio is an outgrowth of that Professor's concern with improving the ability of aspiring students, and African American students in particular, to not only survive in the university environment but, even more, to flourish and compete at higher levels.
In the ten years since the Issues and Concepts Portfolio was first introduced, literally hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students of many different ethnic and social backgrounds have completed the process and found themselves, at the end of the semester, empowered not only with expanded vocabularies and a broadened sense of local, regional, national and international news but, at the same time, possessed of a document that they have been able to draw from in subsequent courses for current, accurate information on a wide range of topics. Moreover, they have developed the valuable skill of focused reading on a regular, daily basis with improved results in reading comprehension and reading speed.
The Issues and Concepts Portfolio is maintained in a 3-ring, looseleaf notebook that may be color-coordinated according to the course instructor's direction. The student is assigned a major metropolitan daily newspaper to read on a regular basis along with one of the three major national newsmagazines (i.e., Time, Newsweek or U.S. News & World Report), and the largest Black-oriented newspaper in the western United States -- the Los Angeles Sentinel which is published on a weekly basis every Thursday. Many students opt to supplement these publications with articles gathered from other sources such as the Daily Sundial, Essence Magazine, Ebony Magazine, Jet Magazine and Black Enterprise. The basic Portfolio, however, will normally consist of articles, syndicated columns, editorial cartoons and editorials drawn from three publications (i.e., The Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine and the Los Angeles Sentinel).
You will have a set number of "Issues" to follow and monitor during the course of the semester. Whenever one of these topics is treated or written about in one of those publications, first read and then cut the article out. The student will make certain to highlight any and all new words or concepts contained in that article. The student will also make certain to identify the news source and date of the article. These articles are then placed in the Portfolio according to the issue assigned according to chronological order. In a separate "Concepts" section of the Portfolio, the student lists the word, defines it and makes note of the page in the Issues Portfolio where it may be found and, finally, uses that word correctly in a single sentence using a subject and a verb. Most often with their "Concepts" section, students list these new words alphabetically. A word to the wise - students who prepare the Issues and Concepts Portfolio conscientiously, working on the various sections every weekend so as not to fall behind, are able to enhance their books by typing these sections rather than doing the writing in longhand.
Within the "Summaries" section, the student then prepares a 250-word summary on each of the particular issues assigned. If the student was assigned six major issues to monitor for the semester, then that student at semester's end will write six (6) summaries of the coverage accorded those issues. If the student was assigned seven topics, then there will be sever summaries. Each of these summaries will make mention of the highlights and low points. Further, the student summary will also afford (or should also afford) the reader some insight on what to expect in the upcoming months. The student will even be able to give notations in that summary as to why the issue is important, what led to it being a major news event.
Every Issues and Concepts Portfolio shares certain design features that are described accordingly --
Table of Contents
| Preface Issue No. 1 - Black Films Issue No. 2 - Social Welfare Programs Issue No. 3 - Public Education Issue No. 4 - Health Care Issue No. 5 - Children and Children's Rights Issue No. 6 - Civil Rights Concepts Sources Summaries |
iii 1-47 48-90 91-112 113-160 161-198 199-258 259-270 271 272-277 |
Make a note that lower-case Roman numerals are used for numbering the Table of Contents and the Preface for the Issues and Concepts Portfolio. These numerals are bottom-centered. When numbering the actual pages of the Portfolio, you are to use Arabic numerals with the first actual page being bottom-centered and all subsequent pages in the upper right hand margin;
In entering the news articles, the student may use the front and back side of the pages. The important thing here is to be certain to number every single page!;
The Preface section is comprised, ideally, of a single page statement written in letter format to the reader(s) of the book. In this section, the author of the Issues Portfolio describes the effort involved in putting the project together and gives thanks to any and all people who provided support in producing the document before signing off at the end with name, location, and date.
Group No. 1 -- Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Sentinel, TIME.
Issues --