Let's Go on an Adventure: Outdoor Literacy Lessons as a Material Starting Place for Writing Among High School Students Who Say They Can't Write

ABSTRACT From a desire to create an “unruly edge” that values student voice in a holistically more authentic and creative learning environment, this qualitative action research study seeks to determine how reconfiguring the learning environment (holding ELA classes outside) contributes to literacy learning for students tracked into classes that foreground required writing processes. The discussion that follows addresses this research question (RQ): how might outdoor literacy events within a required ELA course encourage and expand writing practices of students tracked into standardized classes that emphasize basic skills acquisition? I wanted to know how offering self‐expressive writing opportunities outside, accompanied by active environmental engagement, might inspire students who had not written much in ELA class to create something original and thereby better inform their teachers of their literacy skills.