Reading Response 1: Critical Transitions Introduction & Appendix A

Reading Response 1 Week 1

Response & Observation

"How does concept 1 from Naming What You Know relate to transfer?"

The first concept in Naming What We Know made the most obvious connection to our discussion on transfer. The concept that the act of writing is a social and rhetorical activity can be a relief for most people because it eliminates the feelings of isolation. Writing occurs in a specific context and is always an interaction: either with the text, the perceived audience, the manufacturer of the laptop, or with the experts who came before the writer.

Recognizing that writing connects us to others and is inherently a social act can help writers be mindful of their audience.They can keep their intended audience in mind as they compose a business proposal. They can consider the precise vocabulary needed for an engineering document. And they can maneuver around the constraints of a specific genre. Writing for others directs one’s writing process whether it’s for an assignment or for a client.

In "the real world" (which I suppose means the workplace), written information always has a purpose, and that purpose often times prompts the reader to a specific action. Concept 1.5 "Writing Mediates Activity" nicely explains that whenever something is read, it falls into these two categories: external behavior and internal activity. Writing can elicit a cognitive, emotional, or even physical response from readers, depending on the text’s content. Understanding this concept can help promote transfer because the knowledge that each writer expects a response from the reader forces the writer to identify his purposes explicitly and clearly produce them.

Transfer is a sticky concept that, to me, is challenging to define and apply to my understanding of writing instruction. However, these readings are providing me with explanations, concepts, language, and vocabulary to be able to discuss this topic further.

Key Terms

• Transfer - refers how previous learning influences current and future learning. How past or current learning is applied or adapted to similar or new situations (Appendix A, p. 348).

• Near Transfer - when knowledge or skill is used in situations like the initial context of learning.
• Far Transfer - when people make connections to contexts that intuitively seem vastly different from the context of learning.
• Low Road Transfer - similarities between a new contet and prior situations trigger automatic / extensively practiced skills.
• High Road Transfer - requires mindful abstraction of principles to apply in new situations.
• Boundary-Crossing - intersection between the learner and context (p. 5). Encountering unfamiliar territory where the writer is unqualified. Boundary-crossing requires significant cognitive effort and retooling (p. 5)
• Threshold Concepts - concepts central to participation in a specific discipline. Discursive, integrative, and liminal. (p. 6)
• Successful Transfer - occurs when a writer can transform rhetorical knowledge and rhetorical awareness into performance. (p. 8). Students who face a new / difficult rhetorical task draw on previous knowledge and strategies and they must transform or repurpose that prior knowledge.