“The Science and Art of Transfer”

1. “The Science and Art of Transfer” • Concerns the problem of transference of knowledge and learning • Read the first four paragraphs • How many students would have a similar reaction? • How many teachers would have a similar reaction? • How does this idea apply to what we are trying to accomplish? • What are our barriers? • What are our strengths? • How do we make transfer happen more often? Better questions, more application, more inquiry?

2. Transfer • Near vs. Far transfer • Near transfer is similar to the tower vs. hole question • Far transfer applies connections to contexts that do not immediately have a clear connection • Bo Peep theory of transfer • Build it and they will come • Lost Sheep theory of transfer • Content specialists vs. liberal arts thinkers • Good Shepherd theory of transfer • Creating situations where transfer is favored

3. Transfer • Bridging • Read the teacher/student conversation under the heading “Teaching for Transfer by Bridging” • At the bottom of the second page, read through the other bridging patterns • Questions to think about: • How often does this take place? How often are the questions this deliberate? • What does this do for engagement? • How does this help to promote bridging? • How can we help to see this more often?

4. Transfer vs. “Drill” Tests • Look at the second page and find your discipline • Compare the transfer task to the “drill” test and list specific skills/competencies/challenges that separate the two • Degrees of Transfer- back of the first page • Drill • Game-Like • The Game • Looking at the Core, EOC exams, which is going to help students the most?

5. More examples of Transfer Tasks • You are part of the team that designs displays at the American Frontier Museum. Create a multimedia presentation for the visitors of the museum, demonstrating how the frontier has shaped some aspect of twenty-first century American life or culture. Use a variety of literary and nonliterary resources that reflect a range of time periods and voices.

6. More examples of Transfer Tasks • You have been given a piece of carpet, a marble, a balloon, a lead weight, a measuring tape and a stopwatch. Using these items, prepare a presentation that demonstrates how friction works. • What is the most efficient way to cut the following shapes from a 4x8 sheet of plywood leaving minimal waste? Is there more than one solution to this puzzle? How would you describe this process to a builder?

7. Transfer to the CCSS • Each group will have one of the four areas of the CCSS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening and Language. • On your own- determine which of those standards needs “Transfer” • With a partner, discuss • Share with the group

8. Designing Question Stems for Transfer • One survey on sleep habits, five article introductions from five periodicals • Read them rhetorically and ask these questions: • What is the implicit question or problem introduced? • Who does the article seem to target? • What shared understanding between the writer and reader is used to draw the reader in? • What is the stated benefit of reading the article? • How does the format, style and tone give clues about its genre? How does the author establish credibility?

9. Match the article to the publication JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association YM: Young and Modern Child Development (Published by the Society for Research in Child Development) The Arizona Republic (Daily newspaper) Phi Delta Kappan (Education Honors Society)

10. Bloom’s Taxonomy Revised Original

11. Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy Jigsaw • Explore the your assigned level of Bloom’s with your team • Consider: • The definition • Verbs for objectives • Outcome/product/instructional strategies • Model questions • Prepare a chart for our gallery walk that represents your level of Bloom’s

12. Remembering: Retrieving, recognizing, and recalling relevant knowledge from long-term memory. • Understanding: Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining. • Applying: Carrying out or using a procedure through executing, or implementing.

13. Analyzing: Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose through differentiating, organizing, and attributing. • Evaluating: Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing. • Creating: Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning, or producing

14. Goldilocks Example • Remember: Describe where Goldilocks lives. ______ lives in ______ which is _______. • Understand: Summarize what the Goldilocks story was about. The story was about a ________ who _________.

15. Goldilocks Example • Apply: Construct a theory as to why Goldilocks went into the house. I think _____________ because ___________.

16. Goldilocks Example • Analyze: Differentiate between how Goldilocks reacted and how you would react in each story event. If I were Goldilocks I would have _____________. Me

17. Goldilocks Example • Evaluate: Assess whether or not you think this is a fantasy or a reality. I think this story is __________ because ________. I think this story is __________ because_____. • Create: Compose a song, skit, poem, or rap to convey the Goldilocks story in a new form with a modern day theme.

18. Task • Choose a standard for your grade level • Make sure to use a standard that requires thinking and language • Think about a specific text selection in language arts, science, social science, or literature • Construct a new question and sentence frame for each of the levels of the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy. • Consider prerequisites to the standard

19. Developing Rigorous Questions • Powerful Questions, essential questions and smart questions are the foundation for information, engaged learning and informational literacy • Five Questions about a title • Last Lines • How do the questions line up with Blooms? • How can those responses be used as a formative assessment? For differentiation?

20. Socrates on Questioning • Thinking is not driven by answers, but by questions • Every intellectual field is born out of a cluster of questions to which answers are either needed or highly desirable • Questions define tasks, express problems and delineate issues. Answers signal full stop in thought • Only when an answer generates a further question does though continue its life • The quality of questions students ask determines the quality of the thinking they are doing • No questions=no understanding • Superficial questions= superficial understanding

21. What Questions Matter? Why? - requires analysis of cause and effect and the relationship between variables How? - the basis for problem-solving and synthesis Which? - requires thoughtful decision-making

22. Task • Choose a standard from your content on one of the contents you teach with a partner • Create a Why, a How, and a Which question that leads students towards that standard • Create a subsidiary question that differentiates the original Why, How or Which question • Write the questions on chart paper • Share the questions with the group

23. Essential Questions • Are central to our lives, common to all and contestable • Are the heart of the search for truth • Probe the deepest issues • Are at the center of all the other types of questions • Lend themselves to multidisciplinary investigations • Answers are not readily found • Engage students in real-life problem solving • Need to be answered with subsidiary questions

24. What does this look like? • Open ended questions • Non “yes” or “no” answer possibilities • Precise language • Include wait time • Acknowledge or all responses • Response must be non-judgmental or “guess what I’m thinking” – not looking for “pleasing the authority” • Paraphrase, not praise • Rephrase, not repeat • Thinking aloud • Think/pair/share • Entices more questioning

25. Task • With a partner, choose a subject you teach and create • An essential question that encompasses the entire year • An essential question that encompasses one of your instructional units • An essential question that can be answered after a lesson How can these be used in the classroom? What is the power in these questions? How often should these questions be asked? How can they be part of assessment?