What is good:
We have been told many times that one of our goals as freshman composition instructors is to teach critical thinking. While that matter has been the subject of some debate in our class, I think that of all the theory camps, the various post-process pedagogical provide the best approach to meeting this goal.
This is because these approaches make the students think in new ways, then write about them. When we have our students read Restak then write a reply to him in the manner of the prompts provided, we find it very frustrating when we receive back 20 pages of summary on the dangers of multitasking. An eco-composition approach would get the student away from summary and encourage them to examine the text in new ways. It is similar to using theoretical approaches in literary studies to examine text.
What is necessary/possible:
While this approach has quite a bit of promise, I think that a realistic approach to ENC 1101 (as it is structured by the writing department), precludes its implementation. While trying to have students critically think is necessary, there is simply too much to do in ENC 1101. It has always seemed to me that the true purpose of 1101 is to introduce the student to the genre of academic writing and teach the students the expectations of the compositional expectations of the academy.
Certainly, it is possible to introduce this pedagogical approach in ENC 1102. I say this with the caveat that I have not yet actually taught 1102, but it seems that this would be a better time to do so. In fact, after having seen the sequence for 1102 that the writing department has provided, I am considering an eco-compositional approach to the feminist related pieces.