Originally appears in the Summer 2009 issue
No matter where you teach, whether it is in a huge metropolis or a small village, guiding students to explore the natural world in their own community is a powerful way to teach writing. Bringing students outdoors, into their local neighborhoods and parks, helps them to discover their own creative voices and practice observation and writing skills.
For teachers interested in multidisciplinary approaches to teaching English and Science in grades 6 to 12, an environmental writing project can help students explore hands-on environmental science and develop literacy skills. Through an environmental writing project, students select a local environmental issue to study, visit the site or sites affected, interview local experts and community members engaged in the issue, and then develop a book or portfolio of writings related to the issue. Some of the writings may be essays and articles based on interviews with environmental professionals, activists and city employees. Nonfiction writing can be combined with nature poetry written by the students about the places they are studying. If you have the funding, a small booklet can be created of the collective student work and displayed in your community to educate others about the issues students are working on.
The goal of the project is to empower the students to play an active role in their community, finding solutions that benefit others, and to act as investigative reporters conducting research and learning how to effectively communicate their findings. An environmental writing project can be used to explore an environmental issue and to extend the learning of a community service event such as a habitat restoration or river clean-up. The project is great training for future environmental journalists, scientists and city workers.
Five steps to an environmental writing project
- Choose an environmental issue
Many environmental issues overlap with the topics covered in Earth Science and Environmental Science courses. You can begin the project idea by suggesting correlations between environmental issues in your region and subjects covered in class. For example, if the school is near a polluted river or watershed restoration area, this would tie into water cycles and natural resources.
Teachers can help choose an environmental topic by encouraging the students to think about what environmental problems they know about in their area. Bring in copies of local newspapers for students to study, and begin with brainstorming in class about local environmental issues that the students are interested in studying. These might include water pollution, urban development, loss of habitat, organic farms, water conservation and endangered species. As they brainstorm the issues, list them on the board and have students jot down specific examples in their region that apply to each category. Is there a polluted river near the school? Has a recent drought caused water conservation in town? Are there endangered species in the area that people do not know about or are not protecting properly? Remember to think locally. Selected sites should be within an hour’s drive, as students will be visiting them first hand.
All ideas are welcome in a brainstorming session. If the class is large, try breaking it into smaller groups with note takers to record the ideas. By way of a democratic vote or general consensus, let the students come to an agreement on their topic.
- Select the writing format
Ask the students what type of culminating written project they would like to produce about the environmental issue they have selected. Culminating projects may depend on school resources, and a simple collection of student writing stapled together is just as effective as a professionally bound collection.
The main point of this step is to determine the type of writing that they want to include in their project. Possibilities include collections of poems, essays, newspaper articles or journal entries, and the choice may depend on the needs of the course. An English class studying essay writing, for example, might focus solely on nonfiction or personal essays for the project. Another class might include both creative writing and nonfiction. This project can be formulated to tie into the forms of writing taught in class, or can expand their learning radius by moving beyond those boundaries.
- Conduct community research
Now that the students have a focus for the project, they can begin to take action. The first assignment is for the students to start researching the topic. Assign groups with different tasks: one group will research nearby sites where this type of issue is prevalent. Another group will focus on the work currently being done to address the issue — what environmental organizations, community groups, scientists, activists and others are doing to solve the problem. A third group will focus on the history of the issue and how it has changed over time.
- Visit sites
Schedule several class field trips to the sites being researched, if possible. For example if the students are studying local organic farming, choose one or two organic farms to visit nearby. The closer it is to home, the better, so that students learn more about the environment in which they live and the intersection of human and natural life. Allow for at least one to two hours to conduct the site visits.
At this point, the students act as scientists and journalists, documenting their observations of the landscape. Prepare the writing assignments in advance in order to allow for the best use of students’ time in the field. Students can decide if they will write a poem about the place they are visiting, or record their observations of trash, wildlife, landscape, etc.
The following writing prompts will help to guide students on the site visits:
Zoom Out: Take in the panoramic view of the site. Using all of your senses, observe the landscape as a whole and write down your observations.
Zoom In: Choose one element of the natural world and get closer. Study a plant, bird, tree, rock, etc. in detail, and write your observations.
Adaptation: Write about how a plant or animal has adapted to this environment.
Natural Forces: Pick one of the natural forces that shape the landscape, such as rain, snow, sun, fog or wind, and write about the changes it creates.
Human Impact: How have humans impacted this environment?
- Interview the experts
At this point, students have done the onsite research and applied their own creative voices to the project. They are ready to talk to people in the community who are involved with this key environmental issue. As most communities have community members working on different sides of local issues, students should try to incorporate multiple viewpoints in the stories they tell.
Ask each student to choose a local environmental organization, activist, government worker or politician to interview, either in person or by phone or email. Make sure the students tell their subjects that the interview is for a school project and may be published. Most experts who are passionate about the issue will be eager to talk and share their perspective. Try to interview a diverse range of people who are knowledgeable or personally affected by the environmental issue.
Help students prepare interview questions in advance. Here are a few general interview questions that can be made specific to the project’s issue:
- What do you think about this issue?
- What kind of work have you done on this project?
- How has this landscape changed over time?
- What do you think might happen in the future?
- How does this affect the local community?
- What can people do to get involved?
Wrap-up
The project goal is to give students a chance to learn about their local environment in a historical and educational context and to share their own perspectives as well as those of other community members. Allow them some time to go back to the sites on their own if they have access, as more reflective writing may evolve when they spend time in the place without their peers.
The culminating project can be printed and distributed to the class or the entire school, or even presented as an exhibit in the community. Students will gain a new awareness of the local environment, along with a sense of achievement and belief that they can make a positive impact in their local and global community.
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Jan D. Wellik is Founder and Executive Director of Eco Expressions, a nature writing program for youth. She currently teaches Environmental Science at Platt College in San Diego, California, and is the author of Nature Writing Field Guide for Teachers, which provides writing activities useful for environmental writing projects. It can be ordered online at: <www.EcoExpressions.org>.
