Teaching and Assessing Transferable Skills Across Curriculum

Communication, self-direction, problem-solving, collaboration, and informed thinking. Whether you call these transferable skills, cross-curricular standards, 21st century skills, or by any other title, they are critical for success in postsecondary education and careers. Many educators wonder how to break down transferable skills into their components; how to teach, assess, and give feedback on components; and how to integrate components with content knowledge and skills in authentic ways. This interactive workshop will give educators a chance to work with a variety of tools and resources designed to help meet these challenges, and participants will explore effective practices for teaching and assessing these skills across content areas.

Presenters

Kate Gardoqui, senior associate | Great Schools Partnership

Becky Wilusz, senior associate | Great Schools Partnership

Linda Cloutier-Namdar, ELA teacher | Essex High School

Erica LeClair, literacy coach | Essex High School

Materials

An event flyer for School Redesign in Action by Great Schools Partnership on March 27-28, 2017 in Hartford, CT, about teaching and assessing transferable skills, listing presenters, outcomes, agenda, and tools/resources on a white background.
Agenda
Event flyer featuring logos for Great Schools Partnership and New England Secondary School Consortium, with the title Teaching + Assessing the Transferable Skills Across the Curriculum. Dates: March 27-28, 2017. Hosted by Great Schools Partnership.
Presentation Slides
A Great Schools Partnership webpage about the Transferable Skills Assessment System Project, featuring sections for Project Information, Communication, Problem Solving, Informed Thinking, Self-Direction, Collaboration, and Collecting Student Work.
Transferable Skills Website
Cover page of a literature review titled “Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners,” created by the Great Schools Partnership, featuring a burgundy header, authors’ names, and a word cloud with terms like “Academic Mindsets” and “Learning Strategies.”.
Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners
A cover page titled Performance Task: Change We Can See: Making the Invisible Visible for grades 11-12, created by the Vermont Agency of Education in collaboration with Great Schools Partnership, featuring a list of authors and contributors.
Performance Task Packet
A teaching collaboration planner template with sections for contributors’ details, planning stages, resources, and activities—drawing on Great Schools Partnership guidance. Example resources: videos and group roles; example activities: modeling skills, assigning group roles.
Planner for Teaching Collaboration
A planner template titled Planner for Teaching Communication with sections for contributors, planning stage, resources, and activities. The Model the skill stage suggests using TED Talks, exemplars, Great Schools Partnership tools, and writing contest sites.
Planner for Teaching Communication
A planner template from Great Schools Partnership for teaching informed thinking, with sections for contributor info, planning stages, resources, and activities—plus example links and instructions for Model the skill and Give tools stages.
Planner for Teaching Informed Thinking
A planner template for teaching problem solving, featuring sections for contributors, planning stages, resources, and activities. Example links include Think-alouds, group-solving, the Scientific Method, and Great Schools Partnership strategies.
Planner for Teaching Problem Solving
A planner template by Great Schools Partnership for teaching self-direction, featuring sections for contributors, planning, resources, activities, and example strategies like videos, case studies, and sharing organizational tools.
Planner for Teaching Self-Direction