5 Excuses to Take Your Middle School ELA Classes Outside
When the weather outside is calling your name and your students are begging to go outside, you might feel guilty about leaving your classroom to breathe in that fresh, clean air. But the reality is that learning can happen just as well outside as in. Here are five excuses to take your middle school language arts class outside this week!
Record an audiobook.
I’ve never been a fan of popcorn reading, but it’s so important to assess my students’ fluency so I can help them grow their reading skills before they head off to high school. A few years ago, I started assessing my students’ fluency through audiobook projects. I loved the concept, but when they tried to record themselves reading in the same room, the results were disastrous. I couldn’t assess a thing! Now I take my students outside to record their audiobooks, and it works much better. You can read more about our audiobook projects here!
Find imagery inspiration.
There’s no better place to look for examples of the five senses than in the great outdoors. Have your students take their notebooks outside and make lists of things they see, hear, smell, and touch. (Word to the wise: you may want to leave taste out of this particular activity.) The next time your students are asked to write something with descriptive detail, they can refer to these lists as inspiration.
Practice public speaking.
When I was in high school, my teacher took my class outside to the center of campus and stood us in a circle. We all faced each other and started reading/shouting our essays to the flag pole. I think she was hoping this exercise would help us catch errors in our essays (and it probably worked), but what I remember is how freeing it was to read something I had written in front of a large group that didn’t care at all what I was saying. Usually when we practice public speaking, it can be super intimidating because everyone is focused on us, but when everyone is talking at the same time, it’s really hard to be nervous! If your students are really uncomfortable speaking in front of others, you can play these public speaking games with them (inside or outside) to help them feel more at ease.
Read independently.
I do my best to give my students at least 10-15 minutes of independent reading time each day during class. We usually just sit at our desks with ambience music playing on the Promethean board, but there’s something special about reading a book with your back against a tree. Here in Florida, we have too many fire ants to do this often, but if I taught back in Ohio where I grew up, I would take my students outside to read ALL. THE. TIME.
5. Collect items for a character collage.
A character collage is one fun way to review symbolism, character analysis, and textual evidence—all at once! Take your students outside and have them take pictures of 3-5 things that remind them of a character in the book they are reading. Then have them defend their choices with quotes from their books. Later, you can use the collages as classroom décor!
I hope you get lots of sunshine and breezes for your outdoor activities! If you’re interested in 144 more teaching ideas for every 7th grade ELA standard, download this free pdf!
