Posts You’ve Gotta Read from Bedford/St. Martin’s

During October, the Bedford/St. Martin’s blogs posted over three dozen new posts on topics ranging from pop culture to teaching with technology. Be sure that you check out all the great ideas for talking about current events and the the election, and don’t miss Andrea Lunsford’s discussion of syllabus design in the Classroom Strategies and Resources section:

Writing Program Administration

• Liz Wardle (Bits) explains the 5 Stages of Learning to Teach Writing about Writing.
• Barclay Barrios (Bits) describes his department’s Orientation for new and returning teachers.
• Barclay Barrios (Bits) considers the complicated question of Who Gets to Teach Writing?
• Heather Sellers (Lit Bits) shares a letter to a new graduate student, who is Feeling Underprepared, Underread, Under Everything.
• Nedra Reynolds (Bits) describes a dissertation on Trinary Collaborations: An Alternative Model for Writing Instruction.
• Doug Downs (Bits) responds to questions about the purpose of first-year composition in Refuse It, Break It, Remake It.
• Guest blogger Dan Martin (Bits) explores The Intersection between Writing About Writing and Writing Across the Curriculum: An Examination of the Reading, Writing, and Research Processes of UCF Faculty from across Disciplines.

About Writing and Being a Writer

• Traci Gardner (Bits) reflects On Being a Writer in her first post for the National Day on Writing.
• Traci Gardner (Bits) catches up on last year’s National Day on Writing with 10 reasons #whyiwrite.
• Susan Naomi Bernstein (Bits) Teaches Writing for Home, School, and Everyday Life at The Free University of NYC.
• Traci Gardner (Bits) gets ready for the National Day on Writing by sharing the details of #whatiwrite.

Classroom Strategies and Resources

• Andrea Lunsford (Bits) is Learning from WOVE, that is, written, oral, visual, and electronic modes of expression.
• Holly Pappas (Bits) reflects on her students’ First Attempts at Making Videos.
• Steve Bernhardt (Bits) explores Writing about Financial Literacy and considers other real-life issues in composition class.
• Elizabeth Losh (Bits) explores doodling, drawing, and hand lettering as she considers the act of Illustrating Understanding.
• William Bradley (Lit Bits) shares great, free resources for teachers in Web of Truths: 5 Sites for Creative Nonfiction.
• Emily Isaacson (Lit Bits) explains how theater is a participatory event in The Greek Chorus: Or, You Will All Have to Participate.
• Andrea Lunsford (Bits) explores The Art of Designing a Syllabus and asks for some help assessing multimodal texts.
• Holly Pappas (Bits) talks about helping students find research topics in Finding that elusive spark.
• Susan Naomi Bernstein (Bits) talks about grammar, race, and privilege in The Nice White Lady Teaches Comma Splices.
• William Bradley (Lit Bits) ponders how to advise student writers anxious to start their careers in Unpublished, but Non-Perishable.
• Traci Gardner (Bits) thinks about how to talk with students about what they need to write.
• Emily Isaacson (Lit Bits) focuses on skills for student success and Helping students engage with lectures and other content.
• Jonathan Alexander (Bits) describes a course he’d love to teach in Manga on Manga: Thinking about Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life in the Comp Class.
• Traci Gardner (Bits) discusses the role of audience and purpose in The Truth About Proofreading.
• Steve Bernhardt (Bits) explains how he uses Cover Memos as Reflective Writing in the classroom.

Analyzing Popular Culture and Current Events

• Jack Solomon (Bits) thinks about the process of selecting a topic for a researched semiotic interpretation in The Inquiry Is the Instigation.
• Andrea Lunsford (Bits) talks about the cultural shift from consumption to production in The Next Industrial Revolution?
• Donna Winchell (Bits) spends some time analyzing Elements of argument and the first Presidential debate.
• Barclay Barrios (Bits) talks about polarization and getting used to difference as he teaches The Election in the composition classroom.
• Jack Solomon (Bits) uses The Semiotics of Critical Thinking to analyze the emotional appeal of popular cultural imagery.
• Andrea Lunsford (Bits) analyzes recent political debates and asks, “When is an interruption not an interruption?”
• Donna Winchell (Bits) examines current events for evidence of the power that words have in What a Difference a Word Makes.
• Watch the latest Bedford/St. Martin’s video— Going Viral: Political Campaigns and Video.

Teaching with Technology

• Michael Michaud (Bits) shares Tales of an Emergent Academic Technologist or, Getting Out of the Garden.
• Barclay Barrios (Bits) explores the issue of eLearning at his university and thinks about the possibilities for hybrid courses.
• Michael Michaud (Bits) reflects on how access to computers shapes what and how he teaches in Get a Room.
• Barclay Barrios (Bits) discusses the challenges of returning students’ graded work while also complying with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act in FERPA-fy Me.

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—Traci Gardner

[Photo: _MG_7158 by Neon Tommy, on Flickr]

Cross-posted as a Note on Bedford/St. Martin’s page on Facebook.