Composition Class and Observing Trees

Yesterday, we had a great session in my English 101 class.  

We spent the first 20 minutes outside, walking and stopping to observe 3 trees.  I gave them an observation form to fill out, with the focus being on the three trees:

--Where is it? Could you create directions so that others of us could find it?

--Describe the leaves/needles:

--Describe the bark, the trunk, the branches, the ground around the tree:

--How much taller than you is the tree?

--Feel free to take pictures.

It seemed to go well.  Some of my students seemed a bit perfunctory in their approach, but most fully entered into the assignment.  It was more hot and humid than I would have liked, but that experience will make a great contrast to later in the term.

Students will choose one tree to monitor.  We will do a few more excursions through the semester to see how the tree changes.  We will write about it.  We will see if we can write clear instructions so that the rest of us can find the tree.  We will write about our history with trees and nature and people who write about nature.  The research essay will compare the different ways of talking about trees (children's book, TED talk, science paper, and a work they choose for themselves).

This assignment is rooted (see what I did there?) in my discontent of last year.  I thought I had good ideas for English 101, ideas that had worked before, but they no longer worked.  Or they worked, but they seemed incredibly boring.  I couldn't answer the question, "Why are we even doing this?"  My students, most of them, were so disengaged that they didn't even ask the question.

Is it really important, this observing of trees?  I have no idea.  But it's something different for me, and it does train students in good writing practices.  In our time of rapid climate change, I could make the argument that observing the world around us and preserving those memories is more important than writing about a social change we'd like to see; if I never read another paper about why pot should be legalized, it will be too soon.  My hope is that they will have a chance to develop analytical skills, and I think this research paper approach is better than the ones I've tried before (and if I end up being disappointed, that won't be a surprise--the research paper is the bane of my English teacher existence). 

Yesterday worked--it gives me hope for the rest of my ideas.