DESIGNING & Teaching for Writing Transfer
Workshop 2 / 3
--Michael Rifenburg
*some material taken from Yancey et al's July 2016 CWPA workshop
Writing transfer
about a decade of work
Does not "cross contexts" Yancey, Robertson, Taczak (2014)
Students & Transfer
Bergmann & Zepernick (2007)
Faculty & transfer
Wardle (2007)
But...
"Education can be designed to honor these conditions and achieve transfer"
--from Perkins & Salomon's "Transfer of Learning. In International Handbook of Educational Research. 1994.
two areas of focus
Writing...
Knowledge
&
Practice
Anne Beaufort (2007)
Elon Statement (2013)
Elon University Research Seminar Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer
2011-2013
45 international researchers
drafted statement on transfer and designing conditions and contexts for explicitly teaching for transfer
Elon Statement
Notice "study of and practice with..."
"developing heuristics"
forecasting tft
"developing heuristic"
- introduction of key terms and concepts (11 of 'em)
- reading supporting the writing assignments, including reading in writing theory and readings in reflection
- structured reflection writing thru activities & assignments
- a reiterative assignment in which students develop a theory of writing throughout the entire semester and culminates in a final 'theory of writing' (i.e., a passport) assignment.
KNowledge of writing
"the content in first-year composition does matter, contributing in very specific ways to students' intentional transfer of knowledge and practice in writing"
(Yancey, Robertson, & Taczak, 2014, p. 61)
Knowledge of writing
"students need a vocabulary for writing in order to articulate knowledge and ensure more successful transfer" (p. 101)
"Key terms, fully conceptualized and reiteratively learned and used in the classroom, offer students a vocab available for use in other rhetorical situations. In sum, such a vocab contributes to the passport students need to transition to new contexts" (p. 101)
a warning
"Too much 'floating' content--content unmoored to specific writing theory or practice--resulted in a lack of cohesion, a common thread absent throughout the course design that students could discern or use as a guide or passport" (p. 88)
Next time
November 11
TFT in FYC
Writing Transfer Workshop 2
By mrifenburg
