Point A to Point B

Transferring What We Know

Teaching for transfer is a big deal when it comes to writing pedagogy. Many think we learn to write once, and we just keep doing it that way forever. Though, it is important to remember that, just as we humans change and grow, so do our writing habits. Thus, it is imperative we recognize the ability to bridge appropriate writing strategies to new writing situations. We can’t do this unless we take stock of the writing strategies we currently have, and how they can be used in different ways.

To do this, I believe the one of the more important muscles to be exercising when it comes to transfer learning is meta-cognition. Beaufort explains this meta-cognition to be, “… constantly connecting new and already-acquired knowledge,” (182). For students to participate in this, Beaufort gives us the idea of keeping a process journal in which students discuss what they learned from a specific project, how it connects to other things they already knew, and what they can take from it to use in the future. As a lover of two activities in which you are destined to be a lifelong learner, writing and dance, this idea really resonates with me. In neither of these two activities will you be “perfect” ever, but there are ways to get you to be the best you can be.

Though, as Beaufort reflects, teaching writing is really difficult because of all the different factors that play into it (social and cognitive). So, reflecting on how meta-cognition is important to me, I find that it is really hard to teach that. My transfer of meta-cognition came from a completely different discipline (and Discourse) than writing. Though, this connection did not happen right away. To be more specific, I only just put those pieces together quite recently (like two weeks ago recently). Allowing for breathing space is key here. “Great” writers did not become “great” in one day; it, most likely, came over time. We have to hold space for students to find where they land before, during, and after acquiring all this knowledge.

Or Forget That…

To begin, I would like to shoutout Beaufort for doing exactly as I had said in my previous paragraph: allowing for breathing room is key. She found that what she had written previously does not work, and so she is revising it with what she knows now, while still thinking about what she knew then. She, and all writers, firstly, build up knowledge, secondly, connect knowledge, and lastly, reflect on knowledge (though, the second and third can be interchangeable). Though, I agree in her revision that teaching for transfer can occur no matter the theme of the class, and I feel that this accounts for my transfer of knowledge from one discipline to another. This is what FYC is for, anyway, right? Learning writing skills and applying them elsewhere? How do we do this in 15 weeks?

Let’s talk about Tim. First, I must admit, I feel quite badly for him. His understanding of discourse communities while in college was not what it should have been. He needed someone to explicitly explain how different disciplines call for different ways of writing. His situation has made me self-reflect about FYC course I am currently creating, and have made a mental note to make a big deal about discourse communities. If students do not understand what they are from the beginning of their undergraduate career, how will they stay afloat in all of their classes… ones that are of varying disciplines? Beaufort’s answer: rhetorical analysis and literature reviews. These two assignments allow for the practice of skills that most disciplines use while taking into account the different ways in which they use them.

Although I am not totally on board with some of her choices, like taking out personal writing in FYC, I do find the reasoning behind all of them to be quite sound. We need to find better ways to prepare students for the unknown variables of their future writing. These are variables that are different for every single student. Though, experimentation and finding what works and what doesn’t, like Beaufort did, is what writing instructors need to do to be able to effectively prepare the future writers of the world.