Transfer Teaching

Teaching for transfer only occurred occasionally in middle school and a fair amount in high school. Unfortunately I really don't remember much of middle school so I am going to focus on high school. My middle school had the right idea though. They tried to make all the subjects somewhat connected with each other, and some teachers even told us when skills we learned in their class could be used in other classes.
My high school did a really good job at number 3, presenting the criteria and rubrics at the start of the project or whatever it was. This was a theme across the school. Every time the teacher gave us a project, paper, or socratic seminar question, they were all accompanied by a rubric and what the teacher was looking for. I think that doing this really helped the students know exactly what they were supposed to be doing and what they were getting out of it. My school was also good at practice 4, assessing before and while teaching. At some points throughout the year in some classes we would receive a little "quiz" for us to fill out. This was information that we were learning and included an area for students to voice their concerns or any questions they had. It was anonymous and therefore students felt they could really say how they felt. I know for me, I enjoyed this little "quizzes" because they kept me on track as to what I was supposed to be getting out of it. The other part of high school that made it beneficial was that each project was graded uniquely, as Blog #6 recommends with personalizing student evaluations. Not all of the activities we did were the same; some required more analytical thinking while some needed more creative ideas. Grading many projects using one rubric isn't giving credit to all the processes that went into that project. This unique rubric will also allow teachers to really hone in on what they want students to learn/do. Tying this idea with the one mentioned before about giving this rubric to students at the start of the project, will allow better results, I believe.
A lot of my school career was spent just regurgitating information and telling the teacher what they wanted to hear. With activities that required a little more outside-the-box thinking, it allowed me to grow. Teaching for transfer is a lot of what makes students grow as thinkers. When they are able to learn skills that will assist them when they encounter problems in the future. I believe that teaching students facts and just knowledge is not going to get them very far. They need to be able to apply skills and work through problems to get solutions. No job is just going to be spurting out facts. I hope to be the teacher that gives students more than just facts, but also pushes them to grow as people and citizens of society.