In "Teaching Where We Are: Place Based Language Arts" Merrilyne Lundahl presents her concurrence with the place based language arts approach of educator and academic David Orr. In her articule Lundahl demonstrates this concurrence in asserting her agreement that "all education is environmental education. By what is included or excluded, students are taught they are part of or apart from the natural world" (Orr, 12).
Lundahl goes on to explain that she opts to be "deliberate about helping students recognize their connection to the natural world in the hope that doing so will allow for a more just and sustainable world." By using the "context students live and learn in," it is her belief that we can "create a relevant and engaging curriculum" using "local places, environmental issues ... and people's natural biophilia to improve English education, literacy, and citizenship." Like Orr, Lundahl rebuffs the claim that "environmental education" belongs to science teachers, arguing that "it's the work of us all, and it is a natural fit for the engaging English classroom."
This is revolutionary thinking for many language arts teachers today. Aside from bringing classes outside to have discussions on Plato, Homer, Wilder, and Shakespeare, I can't say that many of my childhood language arts teachers made much of an attempt to immerse our language arts learning into the environment in which we were (and are) so deeply imbedded.
That being said, there is only so much that can be done to incorporate our environments into our writing, reading, and other literary skills. One example Lundahl provides is that of students in rural Utah, who were "asked to create a map of their home-places," during this activity "many [students] who had previously been disengaged lit up." Lundahl purports that through "inviting them to create maps that include places of significance, students bring in authority and can gain access to memories and stories that help them construct and articulate a sense of place."
There is no doubt that this is a wonderful way to engage students in the enterprise of learning, but how does this mapping activity relate to language as we (and our core curriculum standards) know it? Lundahl states that such maps "are rich with prewriting activities" and points out that "published memoirs and fiction frequently include maps in the front matter." But that's not exactly central to the actual acts of writing, reading, or analyzing such memoirs and works of fiction. It is, however, a start. An opening way to engage students through a personal environmentally relevant exercise, and perhaps in some cases that's all it really takes.
All in all I enjoyed this article and thought the author made some really interesting and enriching points. I just think that many teachers attempts at executing the place based curriculum in language arts settings have been feeble at best. Perhaps a further engagement of students within their technological environment would yield better results. Many students are now more acquainted with their facebook groups than the geographic landmarks within their environments.
Work Cited:
Teaching Where We Are: Place-Based Language Arts
Merrilyne Lundahl, Lisa Storm Fink. English Journal. (High school edition). Urbana: Jan 2011. Vol. 100, Iss. 3; pg. 44, 5 pgs
(As found on SNHU online library resource links)
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