Theorist

Two theorists that I tend to model my classroom on are Gottschalk and Sommers. Gottschalk is very much in the social contructivist group and endorses a great deal of personal experience guiding the writing classroom instead of using a prescribed template. Sommers, of course, deals with the concept of revision and writing as a process. I incorporate both of these elements into my classroom very heavily. I allow the students to revise as many times as they wish because this is ultimately how they will learn, in my opinion, to write better. What good does it do to merely mark an error and then move on to the next item of business? The students must be able to identify the problems and then use them in practical application. I know several professors that use this approach and the ones that I have been fortunate enough to study under have aided in my writing skills immensely.
As far as Gottschalk's methodology creeping into my classroom, I tend, as we all do, to use what we know best in the classroom. My personal preference is for lit. and although that is a bad word in conjunction with comp classes, my research has uncovered many comp theorists that not only endorse the use of lit in the classroom, use it themselves, and debate those who oppose it, but they cite actual results in their research as using lit versus not using it (for those who are more prone to it). I have discovered that a majority of those opposed to the use of lit in the classroom are more critical of the way the lit is being used. This is seen in the way the instructors have been trained, New Criticism. it greatly influenced the ways in which lit was used in the writing classroom for a many years, but with the introduction of a new generation of teachers trained in a plethora of methodologies those concerns are becoming less applicable.
And, of course, I use a great deal of humor in my classroom. I have blogged about this aspect of my classroom so I will not go into detail here. But my main influences are Gallagher, Eddie Izzard, and Jeff Dunham (with some George Carlin).