Earlier this week, I came across a discussion on Facebook that questioned assumptions about citing sources--especially in an academic way. Importantly, a lot of students who take our classes might not cite sources in an academic setting once th

20. Metacognition is a Learned Skill

23 days ago 31m 53s

For a while now, I've thought of metacognition as something that can and should be taught as a skill. (I was reminded of this by a podcast episode from The Happiness Lab.) In this episode, I share a reflective exercise based on some of the 8 su

19. A 30-minute Activity about Student Writing in their Other Classes

Mar 7th, 2024 21m 49s

In this episode, I depart briefly from my series on ROCSS (to which I will return in the next episode) to share a fun experience I had with students today. We used David Perkins and Gavriel Salomon's "detect / elect / connect" framework to find

18. Writing Is Made of Genres, and Genres Are Made of ROCSS (Part IV)

Feb 11th, 2024 25m 46s

In the fourth episode of this multi-part series, I provide a classroom exercise I recently used to demonstrate how additional knowledge about writing can support students' use of ROCSS. In particular, I introduced students to causal arguments (

17. Writing is Made of Genres, and Genres are Made of ROCSS (Part III)

Jan 12th, 2024 27m 30s

In the third episode in this series, I share a paragraph from Carolyn Miller's influential article titled "Genre as Social Action." It's a passage that has stuck with me for some time and informs my use of various genres--long and short, large

16. Writing is Made of Genres, and Genres are Made of ROCSS (Part II)

Nov 28th, 2023 23m 31s

In this second episode on a series about ROCSS, I use a page from the Merriam-Webster Children's Dictionary on my son's bookshelf to talk through the components of the acronym: Recurring Occasion, Content, Structure, and Style. ROCSS offers a p

15. Writing is Made of Genres, and Genres are Made of ROCSS (Part I)

Nov 9th, 2023 36m 32s

In scholarship on teaching for transfer from writing studies, a strong emphasis has been placed on knowledge about genre. Arguably, it can be seen as a threshold concept that helps students (or any of us) gain access to knowledge about writing.

14. Turn Your Entire Class Period into an Exercise in Learning Transfer in Ten Minutes

Oct 22nd, 2023 16m 25s

Class time is precious, and it goes without saying that it needs to be dedicated to your curriculum. Although those minutes pass quickly, you can give students an extra benefit by dedicating about 10 minutes of class time to learning transfer.

13. Varied Practice with Students over Time: Familiar to Unfamiliar

Sep 28th, 2023 23m 2s

This episode follows up on a discussion about the importance of practice--one of the Elon Statement on Writing Transfer's "enabling practices" that can help learners develop expertise and transfer knowledge. In this episode, I provide various e

12. Short-circuiting AI with Practice

Sep 11th, 2023 25m 25s

In a recent episode, I covered how using AI can sometimes take the focus away from a learning task and thus short-circuit learning. In this episode, I follow up with the Elon Statement on Writing Transfer and its second "enabling practice": pra

11. AI and What Are We Teaching?

Jul 31st, 2023 27m 55s

In this second of two episodes about artificial intelligence and teaching writing, I continue exploring an important concept in cognitive psychology about learning--that the mind must focus on what we want it to learn. The same is true of teach

10. AI and Learning about Writing (Part I)

Jul 12th, 2023 16m 33s

In this first of two episodes about artificial intelligence and teaching writing, I explore an important concept in cognitive psychology about learning. This episode provides some brief implications that could manifest as we consider encouragi

9. How Learning Transfer Works for Me: Anecdotes from 30 Years Ago!

Jun 8th, 2023 31m 26s

8 What I did at the end of the semester conceptual knowledge, review, and self reflection

May 16th, 2023 30m 46s

7. Lesson plan: PARC

Apr 19th, 2023 26m 57s

In this episode, I share a lesson plan that helps students to use all three "dimensions" I see in the Elon Statement on Writing Transfer: Conceptual knowledge, practice, and metacognitive reflection. The lesson plan is about using PARC--proximi

6. The Elon Statement on Writing Transfer: Enabling Practice #1

Apr 12th, 2023 16m 47s

In this episode, I review "Enabling Practice #1" in the Elon Statement on Writing Transfer. Enabling Practice 1 emphasizes conceptual knowledge about writing, as well as practice with that conceptual knowledge. This episode covers conceptual k

5. The Elon Statement on Writing Transfer in the classroom

Mar 31st, 2023 30m 34s

This episode covers one of the field's most important guiding documents: the Elon Statement on Writing Transfer. Tom provides a brief overview, along with brief thoughts about the Statement's main points. Additional episodes will break down par

4. A Transfer Inventory

Mar 8th, 2023 19m 24s

In this episode on praxis, Tom shares a classroom activity that he calls a "Transfer Inventory": Students rehearse what they have learned in a writing course and then where they might apply it in their other classes.Watch Teaching Writing in

3. "Desirable Difficulties" and ChatGPT

Feb 14th, 2023 20m 10s

Tom discusses "desirable difficulties," their benefits for students, and how ChatGPT responded to an assignment with desirable difficulties factored in.Desirable difficulties, as scholar Robert Bjork calls them, are forms of interference that

2. My reaction to ChatGPT: Change grading to emphasize participation

Jan 27th, 2023 16m 13s

Tom offers one path forward in the face of new developments in artificial intelligence: they can prompt us to hone our teaching practices, which could benefit all our students.