A Place to Write (Getting Your Students out of the Classroom and into the World)

Rob and Amanda Montgomery provide practical guidance and activities for K-12 teachers to get students out of the classroom and writing in real-world settings.

A Place to Write provides a comprehensive view of how place-based writing can be incorporated into the K–12 curriculum for a range of often transformative student writing experiences and classroom purposes, offering both a rationale for moving students out of the classroom to write in real-world spaces and a how-to guide to help teachers develop their own place-based writing activities. Each chapter explores opportunities for writing in a different real-world setting such as museums, schools, public places, natural places, and even virtual places by detailing a range of practical classroom activities in a variety of commonly taught genres.

Each activity is accompanied by considerations for teachers who may want to forge interdisciplinary connections and/or add authentic audiences to their students’ work. Rob and Amanda Montgomery also suggest adaptations and scaffolding for students with special needs and English language learners.

While encouraging environmental advocacy, the book also encompasses issues of equity and social justice, school safety, and culture and identity, as well as accessible ideas for teaching common genres such as personal narrative, argumentation, and authentic forms of inquiry.