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Journal
Writing on Environmental Themes
Program
Area
This activity has been designed to be used for
journal writing in the first 10 periods of a course (for approximately
20 min of each period). The object of this exercise is to encourage
students to get their thoughts onto paper rather than to ensure
correctness. Several entries could be based on environmental observations
in a local park or outdoor area. Others could be based on readings
which are suggested in this guide. At the end of the 10 periods,
students will be expected to write a personal essay based on their
journal entries. This guide provides suggestions for stimulating
journal writing on an environmental theme. No student activity
sheets are provided.
Learning
Outcomes
Teaching, learning and evaluation will focus on the student’s
ability to:
• Observe, imagine, and respond in writing to given situations
related to a park;
• Compose a well-organized essay on their thoughts and feelings
about a park.
Journal
Suggestions
The following journal entry suggestions range from simplest to
most complex. Give the appropriate ones to your students.
- Describe
any evidence you can see, hear, smell, and touch to indicate
that humans make use of this park. Explain your feelings about
what you see.
- Imagine
that you are an explorer who has been searching for this site
for weeks. Today, you come over the hill on foot and see the
site for the very first time. Write an entry in your Explorer’s
Journal to express your pleasure at finally seeing this place
and explain how it is or is not the way you imagined it to be.
- If you
were a volunteer for the Canadian National Institute for the
Blind and you were standing with a blind person at some point
on the path, how would you describe to that person what you
are seeing? Write your description in your journal. As you do
this exercise, think about whether you would like to actually
do this exercise as a class or as an individual.
- If you
could build a community centre on this site, what would you
like to see when you look out of the windows? How could you
use this area and combine it with recreation?
- Every
spring, around Easter weekend, there is a canoe race down the
river in this park. Stand on the bridge and look north and south.
Imagine that you are in that race. Describe your experience
of riding in that canoe from as far north as you can see to
as far south as you can see. Did you run into anything, get
wet, get stuck, have to duck at some point?
Timing
Allow a few moments for the class to travel to the park with their
journals. Allow 20 min for journal writing. As a teacher, you
should do the journal writing exercise with your students. When
you get back to the classroom, ask for volunteers to read what
they have written. Students should not be forced or coerced to
read their writing. Occasionally, students will ask you to read
your writing. They need to know that you don’t have any magic
formula for producing writing and that it is a difficult task
for most people.
Evaluation
Items
All students will compose a well-organized personal essay of no
less than 5 paragraphs based on their journal entries. It will
be up to the student to determine the thesis for this essay.
Cross-disciplinary
Links
Art/Photography—Students may select to illustrate this essay
through sketches or a photo essay.
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