ERIC

Clearinghouse on

Rural Education

and

Small Schools

including

Alaska Natives and

American Indians,

Mexican Americans,

Migrants, and

Outdoor Education

PO Box 1348

Charleston, WV

25325-1348

www.ael.org/eric

I

DIGEST he identifies “reflective observation” as one of four important steps in the transformative process. Writing activities

are one means of facilitating reflection and learning because, as Easley (1989) explains, the process of writing “is

active in the sense that it requires a re-creation of an

experience on paper and reflective in that it requires a

conscious search for meaning . . .” (p. 11). This Digest

summarizes a procedure for designing writing activities,

and it describes six activities appropriate for outdoor

education curricula: journals, freewriting, descriptions,

literary responses, letters, and essays.

Designing Writing Activities

Composition specialists agree that effective writing

activities are planned in advance and integrated with

experiences (Lindemann, 2001). To facilitate the development of such activities, instructors might begin by

asking themselves a series of questions:

• Why am I asking my students to write? (to prepare for a

discussion? to reinforce the teaching of a skill? to

encourage reflection?)

• What type of writing is appropriate for my purpose?

(freewriting? journaling?)

• Given my purpose, when should I ask students to complete

the assignment? (after a specific experience? at intervals

during the experience? at the end of the experience?)

• How do I want the students to complete the assignment?

(on their own? in groups? in a single sitting? in stages?)

• For whom will the students be writing? (themselves?

members of the class? me?)

• How, if at all, will I respond to what the students write?

(in a discussion? with written comments? with a grade?)

Having answered these questions, the next step is to

prepare a description of the writing activity for the students. This description should communicate concisely

and in language familiar to the students the purpose,

form, and audience for their writing during the activity.

Although it is tempting, especially in the field, to present

these assignments verbally, Lindemann (2001) emphasizes the importance of providing written directions, which

students can review throughout the writing process.

Planning and communicating writing activities in this

manner assures that they will be integrated fully into an

experience and that they will contribute to the process of

transforming experiences into knowledge.

Journals

Keeping a journal, which shares linguistic roots with

journey, is an activity that may be integrated into outdoor

experiences in multiple ways. As Murray (1995) explains

in The Sierra Club Nature Writing Handbook, a journal

can be a mechanism for recording and organizing experience, a tool for processing events as they occur, and an

“unflinching mirror” that reminds individuals “of the

importance of eliminating self-deception and half-truths

in thought and writing” (p. 3).

Often, however, students have preconceived notions

about journals. Some associate them with private diaries;

others are intimidated by the journal’s formality, feeling

that they must write in an elevated style and record

profound thoughts. Broadening students’ conceptions of

a journal frees them to use their journals as working

notebooks, where they may collect thoughts, observations, and even objects. Petersen (2001, pp. 39-50) offers

a helpful description of different journal types and approaches to keeping them in Writing Naturally.

In general, journaling activities ask students to do the

following: (1) express their feelings at a given moment; (2)

record what they see, hear, smell, and touch; or (3) probe

the emotional and intellectual significance of their responses to readings, landscapes, people, and experiences.

Specific suggestions for journaling activities may be found

in a number of recent books. Of particular note are

Hinchman’s (1991, 1997) A Life in Hand and A Trail

Through Leaves; Leslie and Roth’s (2000) Keeping a Nature Journal; and the works by Murray and Petersen cited

above. Raffan and Barrett’s (1989) essay “Sharing the

Path: Reflections on Journals from an Expedition” offers

an analytical study of the role that journals might play in

an outdoor experience.

Freewriting

Freewriting, like journaling, often leads to realizations

about an individual’s experiences. It is also a helpful

activity for insecure writers. Promoted by Elbow (1973)

in Writing Without Teachers, freewriting can undo “the

ingrained habit of editing at the same time you are trying

to produce” (p. 6). As Elbow explains, most individuals

edit what they perceive to be unacceptable as they write.

Freewriting allows these thoughts to appear and be acknowledged.

The activity is a simple one: Students write for a

Writing Activities: A Primer for Outdoor

Educators

Alan Brew

EDO-RC-03-1 June 2003

n Experiential Learning, D. A. Kolb (1983) defines

learning as “the process whereby knowledge is created

through the transformation of experience” (p. 38), and
This publication was prepared with funding from the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, under contract no. ED-99-CO-0027. The opinions

expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of IES, the Department, or AEL.

The ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools is operated by AEL. AEL serves as the Regional Educational Laboratory for Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia,

and West Virginia and operates the Eisenhower Regional Consortium for Mathematics and Science Education for these same four states. In addition, it serves as the Region

IV Comprehensive Center. AEL is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. www.ael.org • 800-624-9120 • aelinfo@ael.org

EDO-RC-03-1

designated period of time about anything that comes into their minds.

During this time, they should write continuously; they should write in

sentences, rather than lists or phrases; and they should not correct or

revise. After completing a freewriting session, students can select a

sentence or idea from what they produced and use it as a prompt for a

second session, thus focusing their unconscious exploration of an idea.

Or, students might share what they have written in a discussion. However the writings are used, they should not be graded. Students must be

confident that what they write will not be judged.

Further suggestions for facilitating freewriting activities may be found

in Elbow (1973) and in Tallmadge’s (1999) essay “Writing as a Window

into Nature.”

Descriptions

If freewriting helps students express unconscious or repressed thoughts,

then descriptions help them capture and reflect on sensory experiences.

As Hinchman (1997) observes of Henry David Thoreau, “In finding

words that marry experience and response, he knows the deepest pleasure of the writer. Without the words, he’s looking at the surface; in

finding the words he immerses himself” (p. 125).

Typically, these activities require students to describe their surroundings. Hinchman (1997), for instance, asks her students to keep “cloud

logs,” updating them hourly from dawn until nightfall (p. 130). Tallmadge (1999) encourages students to refine their observations of color

by asking them to describe the sky, which requires them to consider not

only hue but also texture, sheen, and density. In longer courses, students

might visit a specific geographic location over time, describing what

they experience at different times of day or seasons.

Description activities do not, however, need to be limited to observations of nature. Students might describe the behaviors of other participants in the course or, if skill development is a component of the course,

how to start a fire with flint and steel.

Literary Responses

This activity introduces the perceptions of others into the writing

process by asking students to read what others have written about

experiences similar to theirs. These readings broaden the students’

understandings of an experience because they help students see the

experience through the eyes of another.

Written responses to the readings facilitate reflection by providing a

starting point. For instance, students may not know how to begin

processing their personal experiences of a wilderness canoe trip, but

reading an essay by Sigurd Olson gives them something to respond to.

Thus, a student might write, “The emotions that Olson describes are

not the emotions I felt, but I did feel. . . .” Another benefit of these

activities is that the writing of others gives students models, providing

words or structures that help them capture their own experiences.

Letter Writing

Like a journal, letters can serve as a record of experience and as an

impetus to reflection. A common letter-writing activity requires a student to compose a letter to him or herself near the end of an experience.

These letters are collected by the instructor and mailed to the participant

six months after the course. As D. C. Kolb (1988) observes in “Letters

from the Past,” these letters serve as effective vehicles for follow-up in a

variety of situations.

Other letter-writing activities ask students to compose letters to

future participants in a course or to their parents. Foster, Biernat, and

Wheeler (1985) provide an overview of these and other activities in

“Letter Writing for Outdoor Education.”

Essays

Essays are more formal than the other activities described in this Digest,

but they also have a unique benefit. As Tallmadge (1999) explains, “. . . the

discipline, concentration, and attention required to produce a finished story

or essay carry perception and understanding deeper than is possible through

journal entries or freewritings alone” (p. 24).

These assignments are most effective when they are presented as an

opportunity for students to formulate their ideas for presentation to an

audience. Asking students to follow specific length and format guidelines heightens the sense of formality, as does publishing the essays in

some manner, whether in a self-published course reader, institutional

newsletter, or even a professional journal.

Conclusion

In the field of outdoor education, instructors understand that reflection is an important step in the process that transforms experiences into

knowledge. When writing activities are carefully planned and integrated

with outdoor experiences, they become an effective and efficient means

of facilitating reflection in a variety of circumstances and at various

stages during an experience.

References

Easley, A. (1989). Learning through writing. Journal of Developmental Education, 13(1), 10-12.

Elbow, P. (1973). Writing without teachers. New York: Oxford University Press.

Foster, H. L., Biernat, N. A., & Wheeler, J. V. (1985). Letter writing for

outdoor education. Outdoor Communicator, 16(1), 37-39.

Hinchman, H. (1991). A life in hand: Creating the illuminated journal. Salt

Lake City: Gibbs Smith.

Hinchman, H. (1997). A trail through leaves: The journal as a path to place. New

York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Kolb, D. A. (1983). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and

development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Kolb, D. C. (1988). Letters from the past. The Journal of Experiential Education, 11(1), 50-51.

Leslie, C. W., & Roth, C. E. (2000). Keeping a nature journal: Discover a whole

new way of seeing the world around you. Pownal, VT: Storey Books.

Lindemann, E., with Anderson, D. (2001). A rhetoric for writing teachers (4th

ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.

Murray, J. A. (1995). The Sierra Club nature writing handbook: A creative guide.

San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.

Petersen, D. (2001). Writing naturally: A down-to-earth guide to nature writing.

Boulder, CO: Johnson Books.

Raffan, J., & Barrett, M. J. (1989). Sharing the path: Reflections on journals

from an expedition. The Journal of Experiential Education, 12(2), 29-36.

Tallmadge, J. (1999). Writing as a window into nature. In C. W. Leslie, J.

Tallmadge, and T. Wessels (Authors), Into the field: A guide to locally focused

teaching. Nature literacy series (Vol. 3, pp. 1-33). Great Barrington, MA: The

Orion Society.

Alan Brew is an associate professor of English at Northland College

in Ashland, Wisconsin, where he teaches composition, American literature, and month-long courses in the outdoors.