Piloting “Teaching for Transfer” pedagogy in composition courses

[Sherrin Frances, SVSU]

Several faculty members at SVSU are piloting the “Teaching for Transfer” pedagogical approach in multiple sections of our ENGL 111: Composition I course.  We have based the pilot on Naming What We Know (Adler-Kassner and Wardle) and Writing Across Contexts: Transfer, Composition, and Sites of Writing (Yancey, Robertson, and Taczak).  We are using the textbook, Writing About Writing (Wardle and Downs).  

For the roundtable, we are especially interested to talk about how to approach assessment using this pedagogy.  All of our students were assigned the major writing assignment in Ch. 1, "Challenging and exploring your conceptions about writing, reading, and research." We will share copies of this assignment sheet and a few sample student papers.  

We are also interested in a more general discussion of this pedagogy and/or these texts with others who have tried them or have in some way been exposed to them. We are prepared to let the conversation develop organically, in response to the perspectives and experiences that roundtable participants bring to the group.