We’ve all experienced that sudden realization that we are no longer children; what’s unique to...
May marks Write the World’s environmental writing competition sponsored by Patagonia, and we’re delighted to engage middle and high school students around the world in thinking more deeply and creatively about their environment(s).
From mapping warmer weather patterns in California to enduring water security issues in India, collecting seashells on a favorite coastline to picketing for environmental action with classmates, the topics teens can explore are vast—yet connected, as we all are across continents, by one pressing concern: our changing climate.
To help students find ways into this broad and urgent topic, and to prepare them for creative nonfiction writing, we invite you to consider the following curricular ideas. Whether you work to incorporate this month’s competition into your instructional plan or refer students to the competition independently, the following scaffolds will support their brainstorming as they prepare to share their work with the world.
Practice Nature Immersion
Similar to the nature walks they may have embarked upon as children, nature immersion activities ask students (and teachers!) to attune to all five senses and the natural world. If possible, invite students to take a notebook and pen onto your schoolgrounds—even in urban settings, where concrete may overpower grass. At one minute intervals for a total of five minutes, cue students to observe what they see, hear, smell, taste, and can touch in the environment around them.
Then, ask them to make columns for each sense on a piece of paper and to document their observations. Finally, encourage them to dig deeper by responding to the following questions: How do these observations make you feel? How did your emotions change during the activity? What changes did you notice in your body and mind? What did this activity inspire you to think about or remember?
If outdoor adventures aren’t possible in your context, you might invite students to do this on their own time—or you might share a nature immersion YouTube video and invite students to participate through a virtual simulation. Ask them to share their observations in a think-pair-share activity, and to keep their written notes to use as inspiration when crafting their creative nonfiction drafts.
Map Childhood Nature Memories
Spending time in nature may remind students of childhood experiences connected to the natural world. Maybe a crow cawing overhead brings a student back to their first encounter with seagulls on the beach, or the clamor of car horns reminds them of the bustling city center they explored as a child.
Using colored pencils, markers, collage materials, or virtual art platforms, invite students to bring to mind five powerful childhood memories related to nature—and to create a visual map or diagram of them. Try not to assign any emotional valence to these memories (meaning, don’t assign an emotion word, like asking students to share happy or funny memories). Instead, keep the prompt open-ended to see what naturally arises.
If students are feeling stuck, you might encourage them to create symbols that represent each memory, or stick-figure portraits of themselves in each memory. Or, if they have access to the internet and a printer, they could find images related to each memory on which to write or draw.
Invite students to participate in a gallery walk with their memory maps (note: all personal storytelling/sharing activities should be optional, given the vulnerable nature of storytelling). Then, encourage them to select one memory to explore more deeply in their creative nonfiction piece: How can they use sensory details to carry readers into this memory on the page? What larger, more universal issues—climate change, social advocacy, science, research—might students connect this memory to in their piece? How has their perspective changed or evolved as they’ve grown?
Learn from a Climate Expert
Environmental writing presents a wonderful opportunity for cross-disciplinary instruction and real-world connection. To get students excited, consider ways to connect them to environmental experts in your community—landscapers, arborists, climate scientists, environmental science professors, science journalists, and more.
If you’re unable to bring (or Zoom) guests into the classroom, check out online resources that expose students to diverse perspectives on environmental science, history, art, etc. Even better—you might find content created by youth environmental activists worldwide.
Some places to start:
- River of Words - Youth Poetry & Art on Water Science / Environmentalism
- American Association for Women in Science
- National Science Foundation
- PBS: Best Science & Nature Documentaries
Connect the Environment to Your Content Area
In addition to exposing students to a breadth of real-world perspectives, consider how to demonstrate the relevance and connection between your content area and the environment. Here are some ideas based on the core subject that you teach:
- English Language Arts: Consider compiling a print or digital packet of mentor texts showcasing environmental writing from a range of vantage points—from the transcendentalists to modern day science writers to Indigenous poets. Invite students to compare and contrast how these writers, across genres, engage similar themes or pose familiar questions. How might students take inspiration from these multi-genre works and apply their learnings to their own creative nonfiction piece? What craft elements might they emulate, and why?
- Science, Math, and Technology: Share with students relevant studies—facts, figures, charts—related to your local environment. From weather patterns to extreme weather preparedness; river health to town drinking water; local virus tracking to invasive species removal; there is no shortage of topics to explore on the local level that relate, also, to science, math, and technology. Start in your discipline—then zoom out, inviting writers to apply their learnings through the creative nonfiction modality.
- History and Social Studies: Invite students to engage with primary source documents or oral histories from environmental scientists and/or activists of eras past. They might engage in a Jigsaw activity, in which they become experts on one historical figure, event, or movement, then teach (and learn from) others in the class. Then, they can make connections between past and present and channel their thinking into their creative nonfiction piece.
Once again, all of these activities are adaptable for students’ independent engagement as well. We invite you to customize them for your learning context and share your work with us at educators@writetheworld.org for a chance to be featured in future blog content! We look forward to learning from you and your students, this month and beyond.
