Engaging Ideas The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom

by Bean, John C.; Weimer, Maryellen

• ISBN13: 9780470532904
• ISBN10: 0470532904
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-09-06
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

Engaging Ideas, Second Edition is a practical nuts-and-bolts guide for teachers from any discipline who want to design interest-provoking writing and critical thinking activities and incorporate them into their courses in a way that encourages inquiry, exploration, discussion, and debate. Integrating critical thinking with writing-across-the-curriculum approaches, the book shows how teachers from any discipline can incorporate these activities into their courses in a way that encourages inquiry, exploration, discussion, and debate. This edition features new material dealing with genre and discourse community theory, quantitative/scientific literacy, blended and online learning, and other current issues.

Author Biography

John C. Bean is professor of English at Seattle University. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles and the coauthor of several leading composition and argument textbooks.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Maryellen Weimer vii

Preface to the Second Edition xi

About the Author xxi

1 Using Writing to Promote Thinking: A Busy Professor’s Guide to the Whole Book 1

PART 1 UNDERSTANDING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THINKING AND WRITING

2 How Writing Is Related to Critical Thinking 17

3 Helping Writers Think Rhetorically 39

4 Using a Range of Genres to Extend Critical Thinking and Deepen Learning 52

5 Dealing with Issues of Grammar and Correctness 66

PART 2 DESIGNING PROBLEM-BASED ASSIGNMENTS

6 Formal Writing Assignments 89

7 Informal, Exploratory Writing Activities 120

PART 3 COACHING STUDENTS AS LEARNERS, THINKERS, AND WRITERS

8 Designing Tasks to Promote Active Thinking and Learning 149

9 Helping Students Read Difficult Texts 161

10 Using Small Groups to Coach Thinking and Teach Disciplinary Argument 183

11 Bringing More Critical Thinking into Lectures and Discussions 202

12 Enhancing Learning and Critical Thinking in Essay Exams 211

13 Designing and Sequencing Assignments to Teach Undergraduate Research 224

PART 4 READING, COMMENTING ON, AND GRADING STUDENT WRITING

14 Using Rubrics to Develop and Apply Grading Criteria 267

15 Coaching the Writing Process and Handling the Paper Load 290

16 Writing Comments on Students’ Papers 317

References 337

Index 353