CISD Long-Term Transfer Goals

Coppell ISD Long-Term Transfer Goals for Mathematics

According to the work by Wiggins and McTighe in their book Schooling by Design, transfer goals aim to the most important long-term performance outcomes we desire of our learners.  

These goals:

• require application (not simply recognition or recall),

• the application occurs in new situations,

• with the application, some strategic thinking is required,

• learners must apply their learning autonomously (on their own), and 

• transfer calls for the use of habits of mind (such as persistence).

The CISD Long-Term Transfer Goals were identified by a committee of educators challenged with designing a macro-level mathematics curriculum for our district.  The committee selected the 8 Standards for Mathematical Practice which originated from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) process standards and the strands of mathematical proficiency in the National Research Council's report, Adding it Up.

Learner understanding of the Transfer Goals is demonstrated through Transfer Tasks.  Ultimately, the tasks are aligned vertically, beginning with our youngest learners and extending to those applying their understanding abstractly, building throughout as the sophistication of mathematical thinking is developed.

As educators analyze tasks and use the standards (TEKS) to understand desired outcomes, the vertical alignment of the learning experiences is clarified.

One possible example of a transfer task related to a long-term transfer goal, model with mathematics, is stacking cups.  Explained here: http://www.estimation180.com/stackingcups.html, the task has been revised and shared on blog posts by Dan Meyer: http://blog.mrmeyer.com/2008/linear-fun-2-stacking-cups/ and Alex Overwijk: http://slamdunkmath.blogspot.com/2014/05/open-strategy-cup-stacking.html.  Since then, Andrew Stadel has shared how to extend the task vertically: http://mr-stadel.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-ultimate-task-for-vertical-planning.html#comment-form.

If you are interested in designing a learning experienced based on the stacking cups task, please let me know.  This can be done K-12.  I would love to come to your classroom to help!  --- Mary