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

by John C. Bean (Author), Dan Melzer (Author)

Use your course's big ideas to accelerate students' growth as writers and critical thinkers

The newly revised third edition of Engaging Ideas delivers a step-by-step guide for designing writing assignments and critical thinking activities that engage students with important subject-matter questions. This new edition of the celebrated book (now written by the co-author team of Bean and Melzer) uses leading and current research and theory to help you link active learning pedagogy to your courses' subject matter. You'll learn how to:

• Design formal and informal writing assignments that guide students toward thinking like experts in your discipline
• Use time-saving strategies for coaching the writing process and handling the paper load including alternatives to traditional grading such as portfolio assessment and contract grading
• Help students use self-assessment and peer response to improve their work
• Develop better ways than the traditional research paper to teach undergraduate reading and research
• Integrate social media, multimodal genres, and digital technology into the classroom to promote active learning

This book demonstrates how writing can easily be integrated with other critical thinking activities such as inquiry discussions, simulation games, classroom debates, and interactive lectures. The reward of this book is watching students come to class better prepared, more vested in the questions your course investigates, more apt to study purposefully, and more likely to submit high-quality work. Perfect for higher education faculty and curriculum designers across all disciplines, Engaging Ideas will also earn a place in the libraries of graduate students in higher education.

Front Jacket

Capture the attention of your students and accelerate their growth as writers and critical thinkers

In the newly revised Third Edition of Engaging Ideas, distinguished academics and authors John C. Bean and Dan Melzer deliver a step-by-step guide to designing engaging writing assignments and critical thinking activities that connect with students and illuminate important subjects. The Third Edition of this celebrated book relies on current research and data to help instructors, teachers, and professors link active learning pedagogy to course subject matter.

You'll learn techniques that encourage students to come to class better prepared, invest more effort in your course, study more purposefully, and submit higher-quality work. You'll discover how to use time-saving strategies for coaching the writing process and using alternatives to traditional grading methods, like portfolio assessment and contract grading. Finally, you'll find ways to teach undergraduate reading and research that are superior to the traditional -- and staid -- research paper.

Perfect for higher education faculty, curriculum designers, and graduate students in higher education, Engaging Ideas offers readers an invaluable and insightful reference on bringing a wide variety of class material to life and fully engaging with your classroom.

Author Biography

JOHN C. BEAN, PhD, is Emeritus Professor of English at Seattle University. He received his doctorate in Renaissance Literature from the University of Washington. He is Co-author of three composition textbooks -- Writing Arguments, The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing, and Reading Rhetorically.

DAN MELZER, PhD, is Professor in the University Writing Program and Director of First-Year Composition at the University of California. He received his doctorate in Rhetoric and Composition from Florida State University. He is a frequent speaker and lecturer at universities across the United States.