Teach Secondary Issue 14.8

questions that might come to mind. Be sure to also allow students the space to ask each other questions about their objects. 3. Soundscapes Resources: White paper or exercise book and pen Forget the other senses – get your students tuned into the sounds of the woodlands. Building a soundscape description can be a great way for students to stop and take notice of all the wonderful sounds that can be heard in wooded areas. When taking strolls through woodland, have students look out for and note down all the sounds they hear. Once they’ve recorded their notes, or identified four to five key sounds, you can perform the following tasks either while you’re there or when back in the classroom: 1. Hold a class discussion on the types of sounds the students heard. Have students try re-creating some of the sounds for themselves and building a soundscape with peers. 2. Produce a piece of creative writing that hones in on the sounds they’ve heard. This way, students can create more focused pieces of writing with one clear, central idea. Extra challenge: You could ban a selection of sounds or words that you suspect will be repeated too often, thus encouraging your students to use a broader vocabulary in the course of their writing. 4.Make thewoods a VILLAIN! Resources: White paper or exercise book, pencil and pen, assorted naturally fallen objects or recycled materials (optional) Consider all the features and characteristics that make for a good villain. These could include a tendency to conceal information, a menacing appearance or an eerie aura. Organise a woodland walk for your students with the aim of generating inspiration for villainous creations. Have them consider and jot down their responses to the following questions: • How could the trees be made to feel menacing? • How could the light be shown as trying to fight through the darkness? • In what ways could the branches be arms reaching out to get you? Ask the students to consider how each part of the woodland could be a feature of their fictitious villain. This method of writing can enable students to use personification seamlessly, and subsequently develop a piece of writing that shows an extended use of personification. Extra challenge: Take this task a step further by encouraging the students to draw their woodland villain. Label all the key features, then sculpt or build the villain using fallen woodland objects or recycled materials fromhome. 5. StoryMaps Resources: White paper, pencil and watercolour set Have the students work in pairs, with one student sketching and painting a map of the woodland area with five to six key landmarks (which could potentially be prescribed prior to the activity). The second student then sketches and paints two to three scenes that could feature in the pair’s story (which will naturally need to correspond with the first student’s map). This activity will encourage students to explore their creativity in the names they give to each place, what happens in these places, and how they want other people to use said spaces. They could even extend beyond the woodland itself, to potentially include treetop houses or underground hotels. 6. Lights, camera, action! If your school has a film and/ or media department, why not collaborate with them? Consider setting a short film in the woods, as outlined in a shooting brief prepared in advance. For example: • Duration: 5 to 10 minutes • Genre: Action/ Thriller • Narrative: Two school students enter the woods to play hide and seek; what happens when the seeker takes a turn? • Character(s): Two students. The success of this activity will ultimately depend on the strength of your class’ creativity. Some students may thrive with a relatively concise and open brief, while others may need one that’s more prescriptive. When you’re next in a woodland area, encourage the students to look out for key locations they can use in their short films, and at what objects can be found nearby. How could these be used to build a narrative? Once the students are sufficiently inspired, they can start to plot their stories out by storyboarding their ideas, and later filming them in the woodland area, depending on your access to the necessary equipment. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Meera Chudasama is an English, media and film studies teacher with a passion for design and research, and has developed course content for the Charted College of Teaching 29 teachwire.net/secondary O U T D O O R L E A R N I N G TEACH SECONDARY SPECIAL OUTDOOR LEARNING