Creative Writing 

Instructor: Ross Laird

One-sentence summary: 

Take learners outside and encourage them to look and be attuned to these places, with each student seeing something unique to them.  

Take Learners Outside 

Make arrangements to gather at a local park or forest. A few favourite places for this are Redwood Park, Boundary Bay, and Deas Island Park. Talk to students about a particular theme (e.g., creativity, ecology, sustainability, wellness). Introduce the place and invite students to look or engage with a particular area, such as group of trees or stream. How learners engage and what they experience is unique to each student. Time and space are given for purposeful play and reflection. The instructor does not provide the solution. In this way, learners need to be discerning and critical in their approach. Students may struggle with the lack of prescriptive direction, and our instead guided by their own natural curiosity. 

For a disciplinary focus, a specific theme or topic can be chosen, though it should still be left for the learner to discover things for themselves.  

For further inspiration on intentional outdoor teaching and learning, visit KPU Wild Spaces.