Writing About Nature

Classroom Activities

In considering what I learned in seminar and through the process of writing to discover, there seems to be a progression of goals when considering what nature might each us as adults and what it may teach our students. Thoreau went into nature in part to see what it might teach him, to be very deliberate in his actions and observations. Carson not only engaged in similar impassioned observations as Thoreau, but she recognized the importance of science and the need for advocacy to protect the world. Finally, Lanham notes that everyone has historically not felt safe in nature or has accessibility to it in the same ways. I have to recognize this year real concern for my students. They are urban kids who may not have the access that others have; that doesn’t change the fact they will have the very real burden of addressing climate change within their lifetime. This progression from noticing to appreciating to valuing and finally advocating for nature is reflected in the classroom activities I propose below. The implementation of this unit will entail three phases with a subset of activities that each address big questions. I imagine the first two phases to take about a week to a week and a half. The last phase would take about two weeks to do the readings I propose and write an essay about conservation.

Phase One: How do people engage in nature?

I want students to think about how individuals have figured out their pathways and engagement to nature. This will involve considering what other individuals seek in nature. Transcendentalists like Thoreau sought solitude, meditation, and the opportunity to critique society. Carson hoped to cultivate a sense of wonder so individuals not only appreciate nature but also see the necessity in being good stewards of the natural world. Latham and Christian Cooper extend Carson’s call to action by sharing the need for all individuals to not only find their own connection to the natural world but also act as agents of change to protect the natural world.

Activity One: Considering Aphorisms from the Transcendentalism

Students will read short biographies of both Emerson and Thoreau. There are a number that are readily available online; you’ll want to introduce students to these individuals with text that are appropriate for their reading levels.

I would introduce students to the concept of an aphorism. Aphorisms are life lessons to live by. I would have students select one and explain what truth they think that Emerson was trying to communicate.

--“But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars…. If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile” (From “Nature”)

--“In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth.” (From “Nature”)

--“Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, — all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.” (From “Nature”).

--“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events.” (From “Self-Reliance”).

--“Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” (From “Self-Reliance”).

--“Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood...” (From “Self-Reliance).

Activity Two: Reflect on Thoreau’s Experience in Nature

If you go to YouTube and search “Henry David Thoreau Tour with Bob Villa,” you will get a video of Bob Villa (from the PBS This Old House show) interacting with a teacher who impersonates Thoreau inside of a replica cabin.

Students will be asked to reflect on what they viewed. What do they think about Thoreau’s decision to go and live in the cabin removed from society for nearly two years? Is that necessary? If Thoreau were alive in America now, what would he think about the state of affairs in America today?

Activity Three: Exploration of Rachel Carson’s Legacy

Students will read a short biography on Rachel Carson. Again, there are a number of resources available; you will want to find one that is at an appropriate reading level for your students. If you search American Experience, Rachel Carson, you will encounter chapter one of a longer documentary that aired on PBS; it runs just short of nine minutes. I would show this short documentary in class and have students consider why she was important? What were her hopes for spending time in nature? What were her hopes for others related to nature?

Activity Four: Read about Christian Cooper/excerpt of The Home Place

Students will read/listen to the first section of the NPR article “Central Park birder Christian Cooper on being 'a Black man in the natural world': NPR” and have students reflect on the experience (easily found online with the title). I would talk a bit about the format of the text--it is an interview--before having students reflect on why is it hard for some people to feel connected to nature. 

We will also read an excerpt from The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham titled “Birding While Black,” which is on pages 151-158. We’ll talk about his experiences and how they parallel those of Christian Cooper.

Phase Two: How will my students engage in nature?

In the “Writing about Nature” Seminar, we had the opportunity to go out into nature and write and draw reflectively. We spent time looking at the trees and sharing our reflections. With students, our time spent in nature needs to be a bit more directed and focused. I also want each experience to be slightly different so that engagement is sustained throughout our time outdoors.  Before all of our experiences outdoors, I would engage in the practices that I outlined while writing about Spirit Walks before conducting any of the observations listed below. I will also read the picture book Noticing by Kobi Yamada to my students; this book, which eloquently speaks to my interest in the activity of noticing, was generously supplied by my colleagues to me from our seminar group.³⁵

Activity Five: Nature Reading—Animals and Symbols

We will read “The Turtle” by John Steinbeck. In this piece, I will give a brief overview of the Joad family and what the text The Grapes of Wrath is trying to depict about migrants and life during the Great Depression and living in the Dust Bowl. “The Turtle” is a chapter in the The Grapes of Wrath that functions as a symbol. In the text, the turtle is crossing a highway. It is described with such great detail that the reader cannot help but visualize the turtle trudging along attempting to cross the road. It is then purposely hit by a truck that swerves to make contact with the turtle. It is symbolic of all of the obstacles that migrants encountered as they moved from Oklahoma to California in search of better conditions.³⁶ We’ll discuss the power of description and how animals can be thought of in symbolic terms. This will set up the first of our nature observations. If we had to think deeply about what an animal or plant could represent, what sort of symbolic connections could we make in our own writing? 

We will also listen to and annotate the song “Blackbird” by the Beatles. In the song, McCartney is reflecting on the Civil Rights Movement and encouraging African Americans to continue fighting for equality.³⁷ We’ll use our close reading of this text to think about an animal that we see. What could it potentially represent? What are some deeper issues in the world that could be compared to the animals that we see actively in front of us?

For this activity, students will be encouraged to make use of animal cameras. There are a number of websites with live feeds of animals. In my research, I found one website with a list of 19 live feeds of different zoos and other places:

Joyner, Lisa. “‘19 Live Animal Webcams to Get You through Lockdown.’” Country Living, March 20, 2023. https://www.countryliving.com/uk/wildlife/countryside/g31784857/live-animal-webcam-zoo/.

It may be a helpful resource if you are considering having your students do something similar.

Activity Six: Landscape Observations

We will read two sections from N. Scott Momaday’s Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land. One aspect that is important to strong narrative writing is the ability to create a scene in the reader’s mind. There are two passages that I would like to direct student’s attention towards:

Near cornfields I saw a hawk. At first it was nothing but a speck, almost still in the sky. But as I watched, it swung diagonally down until it took shape against a dark ridge, and I could see the sheen of its hackles and the pale underside of its wings. Its motion seemed slow as it leveled off and sailed in a straight line. I caught my breath and waited to see what I thought would be its steep ascent away from the land. But instead it dived down in a blur, a vertical streak like a bolt of lightning, to the ground. It struck down in a creosote bush. After a long moment in which there was a burst of commotion, the great bird beat upward, bearing the limp body of a rabbit in its talons. And it was again a mote that receded into nothing. I had seen a wild performance, I thought, something of the earth that inspired wonder and fear. I hold tight to this vision.³⁸ 

As we did in seminar, I would read this passage with students and have them look for something from the nature world that inspires wonder and fear and describe it in a way that they could use this text as a model to help shape student thinking and writing. We would look at another section of Momaday’s text in another trip outside.

In winter on the northern prairie I came upon a scene of ineffable beauty. There were vast sloping snowfields, and everywhere there were shrubs crusted with ice. In the January light they shone with a crystalline brilliance that glittered like shards broken from the sun. On a blue-white hillside there appeared a bull elk moving diagonally down to a dense wood and out of sight. The elk and the wilderness belonged to each other, I thought, and in the spectrum of evolution I was estranged from both. The next morning I heard the whine of chainsaws in the distance.³⁹

With this section, I would have students consider how the author’s choices and descriptions could be used to create mood. Momaday sets this passage in winter, incorporates cold and uses words like shards and broken that have strong connotations, but still creates a scene of immense beauty. The last line where it is all wiped out is a punch. I want students to do a quick write where they describe a scene in front of them trying to create a specific mood. They will create the mood through word choice and the details they include.

Activity Seven: Observing a Tree Together

For this activity, we would go outside and look at a large tree that we have on our school property. In the past, we have read a poem that I found in the book Naming the World by Nancie Atwell that is full of poems for students to read as mentor texts called “Seasons of the School Oak Tree.”⁴⁰ We would read the poem that a student wrote where he thinks about how the tree changes with each of the seasons. I will point out that the poet uses each season as a frame for a four stanza poem. Students will draft a poem and share while we are seated around the tree.

Activity Eight: Observing in a Scientific Way

For this activity, I would like students to treat their observation like a scientist might. This is a way to gather information adopted from Patricia Bricker and her research on science journaling in nature.⁴¹

This type of activity helps to hone the type of observational skills that students need in the STEM fields and represents a different form of observing than a number of the other activities that I have in mind for our work together. For this activity, students would be provided with magnifying glasses to use while they quantify what they see.

Phase Three: What can we do to help conserve nature?

Activity Nine: Read the poem “Whale Song”

In bringing closure to the unit, I would like to read the poem “Whale Song” by Mary Goose and have students consider the act of noticing in a more nuanced way. We would do a close read of the poem, unpacking what it means to notice versus seeing things in a superficial way like the joggers in matching suits commenting on the beauty of the sunset.⁴² This would set up the reading for students to be more active in thinking about their role in impacting the environment.

Activities Ten-Fifteen: Read portions of Nature’s Best Hope

In thinking about the spirit of Rachel Carson’s efforts as well as the concerns of many regarding global warming and climate change, I want to leave my students with ways that they can make small changes in the face of massive challenges that the world will face in the coming years due to the changing climate. I encountered a text called Nature’s Best Hope: How You Can Save the World in Your Own Yard.  I plan on reading the following chapters from the book with my students: Chapter Five: What’s a Lawn for?; Chapter Seven: Which Plants are Best?; Chapter Eight: Good Plants, Bad Plants; Chapter Ten: Bring Back Bees; and Chapter Eleven: Weeds are our Friends.

I would use the table below with each one of the chapters to unpack the argument that the author is making within the chapter. I would go at the pace of one chapter per class period; each of my class periods are about an hour long.

Once we work our way through the five chapters that we will read together, I will have students use these sheets to write an essay about things they could do to engage in conservation. Each one of the sheets would be used to organize one paragraph in their essay. There essays would have an introduction, five body paragraphs, and a conclusion. This would serve as the summative assessment of the unit.