Engaging ideas : the professor's guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom / John C. Bean, Daniel Melzer.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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:

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.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface to the Third Edition (p. vii)
• About the Authors (p. xix)
• 1 Using Writing to Promote Thinking: A Busy Professor's Guide to the Whole Book (p. 1)
• Part 1 Understanding Connections between Thinking and Writing
• 2 How Writing Is Related to Critical Thinking (p. 17)
• 3 Helping Writers Think Rhetorically (p. 39)
• Part 2 Designing Problem-Based Writing Assignments
• 4 Formal Writing Assignments Situated in Rhetorical Contexts (p. 59)
• 5 Informal, Exploratory Writing Activities (p. 94)
• Part 3 Coaching Students as Learners, Thinkers, and Writers
• 6 Designing Tasks to Promote Active Thinking and Learning (p. 121)
• 7 Helping Students Read Mindfully across the Disciplines (p. 133)
• 8 Using Small Groups to Coach Thinking and Teach Disciplinary Argument (p. 159)
• 9 Bringing More Critical Thinking into Lectures and Discussions (p. 179)
• 10 Designing and Sequencing Assignments to Teach Undergraduate Research (p. 189)
• Part 4 Responding to and Grading Student Writing
• 11 Helping Students Use Self-Assessment and Peer Review to Promote Revision and Reflection (p. 231)
• 12 Using Rubrics to Develop and Apply Grading Criteria (p. 253)
• 13 Coaching the Writing Process and Handling the Paper Load (p. 278)
• 14 Providing Effective and Efficient Feedback (p. 298)
• 15 Responding to Grammar and Other Sentence-Level Concerns (p. 317)
• 16 Alternatives to Traditional Grading: Portfolio Assessment and Contract Grading (p. 338)
• References (p. 353)
• Index (p. 373)

Author notes provided by Syndetics