Bean was definitely one of the most important, as well as the one I got the most useful information out of. Bean's ideas were all about intergrading writing and active learning into the classroom, and that is something that I really think is a big part of being a teacher. He breaks down things like What does it mean to know Grammar, and What teachers across the curriculum need to know, and I think these things are really important because if you're going to enforce writing across the disciplines, it's first and foremost that the teacher knows what they are talking about first. He devotes his whole fourth chapter to being able to deal with grammatical mistakes, and to be able to teach and correct these errors you must be familiar with them yourself. I also like it because it's geared strictly for teachers and faculty of all subjects, it's an aid to all who have any interest in incorporating writing into their classroom, and is filled with information needed to get the writing in and to get it done right.
The next text I found really important and looked at as something I would use in my classroom is Young's Teaching Writing Across the Curriculum. Maybe because I had to present on this text for my Theorist Card I was able to take a closer look and really dive into the work, but I found some of his methods really helpful. The think I took most from this text was the way he breaks down writing to learn into sections: Discovery thinking, Invention, Audience, Personal Language in Social community, Teacher as Mentor, Personal Knowledge, Forms: Journals, Notes, Rough Drafts. And he breaks down Writing to communicate into: Critical thinking, Revision, Reader-based prose, Audience-distant, Formal Language of Discourse Community, Teacher as Evaluator, Contextual Knowledge, Forms: Essays, Reports, Business Letters. These are assignments I would definitely use in my classroom they are good for any discipline and a great way to break down writing to learn and writing to communicate in an effective way.
This next text I didn't think I would like as much as I did, nor did I think I would want to use this in my pedagogy, but as the semester progressed I thought it would be pretty cool to incorporate this into my own classroom someday. That is The Non-Designer's Design Book, and the reason is because I think it is a great idea to get not only your student , but yourself thinking about making website for courses. This book is a great tool for those who don't have any experience with this topic, and it really breaks down the basic CRAP principles in a not so difficult way.
Overall Reflection on using the texts in the classroom:
Bean is the easiest transition into the classroom because it's a teacher's guide to bring writing across the curriculum into your own classroom, so you chose what you want to put in and you incorporate it. I would most likely be teaching in a writing environment so getting it in there will be simple, the hard part is getting it in there in a fun, helpful, and effective way. One thing I think I will definitely be bring into my classroom will be students keeping a personal blog.
Young had great ideas from bringing writing into every discipline, but what I will take from Young is using the two separate ways to write in a different way. I will take the writing to learn assignments and use them as some low stakes writing, such as the journals and drafts. These won't be graded and can gives students the opportunity to improve. I will use the writing to communicate assignments as high stakes writing, such as essays and critical thinking, and these will be graded, and will be the improvements of the low stakes writing.
Williams will be a little tricky to use, but I definitely want to get it into my classroom, even is we do small assignments like designing campus event flyers and business cards for their future endeavours. I just want to put this in my syllabus because I think it is so important for students to know this kind of technology in a world where it is so significant.
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