In this book, the author integrates the critical thinking movement with the writing-across-the-curriculum movement to create a practical nuts-and-bolts guide to designing interest-provoking writing and critical thinking activities. He shows how teachers from any discipline can incorporate these activities into their courses in a way that encourages inquiry, exploration, discussion, and debate.
The third edition of Engaging Ideas uses recent research and theory to encourage instructors to think beyond exams, to focus less on instructor response to student writing by coaching students to use self-assessment and peer response, and to explore alternatives to traditional grading such as portfolio assessment and contract grading. Throughout, the book also includes expanded coverage of social media, multimodal genres, and uses of digital technology in the classroom. Treating writing assignments as only one of many ways to present critical thinking problems to students, Engaging Ideas also shows how writing can easily be integrated with such other critical thinking activities as inquiry discussions, simulation games, classroom debates, and interactive lectures. Engaging Ideas, Third Edition shows how these and other activities can transform students from passive to active learners, deepening their understanding of the subject matter while helping them learn the thinking processes of the discipline.
John C. Bean is an emeritus professor of English at Seattle University, where he held the title of "Consulting Professor of Writing and Assessment." He has an undergraduate degree in English from Stanford and a Ph.D. in Renaissance literature from the University of Washington. He has been active in the writing-across-the-curriculum movement since 1976. Besides& Engaging Ideas, he is the co-author of three widely-used composition textbooks--Writing Arguments, The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing, and Reading Rhetorically. He has done extensive consulting across the United States and Canada on writing across the curriculum, critical thinking, and university outcomes assessment.
Dan Melzer is a professor in the University Writing Program and Director of First-Year Composition at the University of California, Davis. He has a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from Florida State University. He is the author of the monograph Assignments Across the Curriculum and co-author with Michelle Cox and Jeffrey Galin of the monograph Sustainable WAC: A Whole Systems Approach to Launching and Developing WAC Programs. He has also published two textbooks, Exploring College Writing and Everything's a Text (with Deborah Coxwell Teague). He frequently gives keynotes and is a guest lecturer and workshop leader at universities across the country.
Preface
About the Authors
1 Using Writing to Promote Thinking: A Busy Professor’s Guide to the Whole Book
PART 1 UNDERSTANDING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THINKING AND WRITING
2 How Writing Is Related to Critical Thinking
3 Helping Students Think Rhetorically
PART 2 DESIGNING PROBLEM-BASED WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
4 Formal Writing Assignments Situated in Rhetorical Contexts
5 Informal, Exploratory Writing Activities
PART 3 COACHING STUDENTS AS LEARNERS, THINKERS, AND WRITERS
6 Designing Tasks to Promote Active Thinking and Learning
7 Helping Students Read Mindfully across the Disciplines
8 Using Small Groups to Coach Thinking and Teach Disciplinary Argument
9 Bringing More Critical Thinking into Lectures and Discussions
10 Designing and Sequencing Assignments to Teach Undergraduate Research
PART 4 RESPONDING TO AND GRADING STUDENT WRITING
11 Helping Students Use Self-Assessment and Peer Review to Promote Revision and Reflection
12 Using Rubrics to Develop and Apply Assessment Criteria
13 Coaching the Writing Process and Handling the Paper Load
14 Providing Effective and Efficient Feedback
15 Responding to Grammar and Other Sentence-Level Concerns
16 Alternatives to Traditional Grading: Portfolio Assessment and Contract Grading
References
Index
Other versions by this Author