This text presents a variety of ways for students to meet traditional instructional goals in writing while also learning how writing can help them become stewards of the natural world and advocates for their own communities. Built on a foundation of emerging research and theory and grounded in the lived reality of teachers, this book explores the material and virtual worlds as places that can be equally productive as sources for authentic writing. Readers will find place-based writing activities, lesson ideas, and samples of student work in every chapter. With practical and classroom-tested ideas, Place-Based Writing in Action is a useful text for preservice and in-service English teachers, as well as any educator who wants to move the act of writing beyond the four walls of the classroom.

This book explores how educators can realize the potential of critical place-based pedagogy. The authors’ model leverages the power of technology through strategies such as mobile mapping so that students can read the world and share spatial narratives. The same complexity that makes spaces outside the classroom ideal for authentic, purposeful learning creates challenges for educators who must minimize students taking wrong turns or reaching dead ends. Instructional design process is key and the authors offer exemplars of this from multiple disciplines. Whether students are exploring a local community or a natural environment, place-based inquires must include recognition of privilege and the social dynamics that reinforce inequalities. Concluding with a discussion of the changing social context, the authors highlight how contemporary events add a sense of urgency to the call for a critical place-based pedagogy—one that is more inclusive for all students.

Place-based Curriculum Design provides pre-service and practicing teachers both the rationale and tools to create and integrate meaningful, place-based learning experiences for students. Practical, classroom-based curricular examples illustrate how teachers can engage the local and still be accountable to the existing demands of federal, state, and district mandates. Coverage includes connecting the curriculum to students’ outside-of-school lives; using local phenomena or issues to enhance students’ understanding of discipline-based questions; engaging in in-depth explorations of local issues and events to create cross-disciplinary learning experiences, and creating units or sustained learning experiences aimed at engendering social and environmental renewal. An on-line resource (www.routledge.com/9781138013469) provides supplementary materials, including curricular templates, tools for reflective practice, and additional materials for instructors and students.

"Place: it's where we're from; it's where we're going. . . . It asks for our attention and care. If we pay attention, place has much to teach us." With this belief as a foundation, The Power of Place offers a comprehensive and compelling case for making communities the locus of learning for students of all ages and backgrounds. Dispelling the notion that place-based education is an approach limited to those who can afford it, the authors describe how schools in diverse contexts—urban and rural, public and private—have adopted place-based programs as a way to better engage students and attain three important goals of education: student agency, equity, and community. This book identifies six defining principles of place-based education. Namely, it 1. Embeds learning everywhere and views the community as a classroom. 2. Is centered on individual learners. 3. Is inquiry based to help students develop an understanding of their place in the world. 4. Incorporates local and global thinking and investigations. 5. Requires design thinking to find solutions to authentic problems. 6. Is interdisciplinary. For each principle, the authors share stories of students whose lives were transformed by their experiences in place-based programs, elaborate on what the principle means, demonstrate what it looks like in practice by presenting case studies from schools throughout the United States, and offer action steps for implementation. Aimed at educators from preK through high school, The Power of Place is a definitive guide to developing programs that will lead to successful outcomes for students, more fulfilling careers for teachers, and lasting benefits for communities.

This edited volume explores 21st century stories of hunting, foraging, and fishing for food as unique forms of place-based learning. Through the authors’ narratives, it reveals complex social and ecological relationships while readers sample the flavors of foraging in Portland, Oregon; feel some of what it’s like to grow up hunting and gathering as a person of Oglala Lakota and Shoshone-Bannock descent; track the immersive process of learning to communicate with rocky mountain elk; encounter a road-killed deer as a spontaneous source of local meat, and more. Other topics in the collection connect place, food, and learning to issues of identity, activism, spirituality, food movements, conservation, traditional and elder knowledge, and the ethics related to eating the more-than-human world. This volume will bring lively discussion to courses on place-based learning, food studies, environmental education, outdoor recreation, experiential education, holistic learning, human dimensions of natural resource management, sustainability, food systems, environmental ethics, and others.

Explores the intersections between writing and ecological studies.

The creative writing workshop: beloved by some, dreaded by others, and ubiquitous in writing programs across the nation. For decades, the workshop has been entrenched as the primary pedagogy of creative writing. While the field of creative writing studies has sometimes myopically focused on this single method, the related discipline of composition studies has made use of numerous pedagogical models. In Creative Writing Pedagogies for the Twenty-First Century, editors Alexandria Peary and Tom C. Hunley gather experts from both creative writing and composition studies to offer innovative alternatives to the traditional creative writing workshop. Drawing primarily from the field of composition studies—a discipline rich with a wide range of established pedagogies—the contributors in this volume build on previous models to present fresh and inventive methods for the teaching of creative writing. Each chapter offers both a theoretical and a historical background for its respective pedagogical ideas, as well as practical applications for use in the classroom. This myriad of methods can be used either as a supplement to the customary workshop model or as stand-alone roadmaps to engage and reinvigorate the creative process for both students and teachers alike. A fresh and inspiring collection of teaching methods, Creative Writing Pedagogies for the Twenty-First Century combines both conventional and cutting-edge techniques to expand the pedagogical possibilities in creative writing studies.

The author details and celebrates an approach to teaching that emphasizes connections among school, community, and environment.

The ability to effectively communicate in a globalized world shapes the economic, social, and democratic implications for the future of P-12 students. Digitally mediated communication in an inclusive classroom increases a student’s familiarity and comfortability with multiple types of media used in a wider technological culture. However, there is a need for research that explores the larger context and methodologies of participatory literacy in a digital educational space. Participatory Literacy Practices for P-12 Classrooms in the Digital Age is an essential collection of innovative research on the methods and applications of integrating digital content into a learning environment to support inclusive classroom designs. While highlighting topics such as game-based learning, coding education, and multimodal narratives, this book is ideally designed for practicing instructors, pre-service teachers, professional development coordinators, instructional facilitators, curriculum designers, academicians, and researchers seeking interdisciplinary coverage on how participatory literacies enhance a student’s ability to both contribute to the class and engage in opportunities beyond the classroom.