Taking Workshop Outside

This morning, I told the students to gather quickly with their writer’s notebooks and a pen or pencil, because we were taking our workshop outside to the park.

“No way!” They shouted. “Yessss!”

We headed downstairs and out to the park that faces our school, congregating around one of the picnic tables so I could tell them the teaching point.

“Writers, today I want to teach you another strategy for generating ideas for poems,” I said. “Poets see the world with eyes that are alert to the smallest details.”

I pointed to the vines hanging from the tree branch above us.

“Look at how the sun is glinting off of the vines, making them look golden. Notice how they’re waving in the wind, swaying.”

“Almost like they’re dancing!” T chimed in.

“Exactly!” I smiled back. “I think I’ll write that down. I might be able to use it in a poem later.”

I pulled out a mini-anchor chart with steps for the teaching point.

“Poets, today you’ll look at the park with new eyes. You’ll write long in your notebooks about what you observe, what you notice, and what you think about what you see. All of this can be used as inspiration for later poems! Now, spread out and find a spot where you can really fine tune your poet’s eyes. Off you go!”

And they all dispersed.

For the next thirty minutes, pens scribbled in notebooks, eyes gazed around in wonder, and when we gathered again, almost everyone shared an excerpt from their writing.

On our way back to the school building, we brought back plenty of new ideas, as well as a moth and a tiny inchworm.

As the door closed behind us, one student asked, “Can we have writer’s workshop outside every day?”

If only!