To Look Closely

Whether it’s a trickling stream, a grassy slope, or an abandoned rail spur, the natural world offers teachers a wonderful resource around which to centre creative, inquiry-based learning throughout the year. Nobody knows this better than veteran teacher Laurie Rubin. In To Look Closely: Science and Literacy in the Natural World, she demonstrates how nature study can help students become careful, intentional observers of all they see, growing into stronger readers, writers, mathematicians, and scientists in the process.

Laurie invites you to join her class of twenty-one second graders as they visit a small stream in the woods behind a suburban elementary school, and she shares her reflections on class discussions, activities, and learning experiences. From setting a tone of inquiry-based thinking in the classroom to suggesting specific units of study for reading, writing, and science, Laurie guides teachers step-by-step through the basics of how to integrate the skills acquired through nature study into every subject. You will also discover all the ways this purposeful work nurtures “green” citizens who grow up determined to value and protect the natural environment.

Filled with student journal entries, narratives, and poems inspired by experiences in the natural world, To Look Closely will inspire and encourage you to become a careful observer of your own “sit spots” outdoors and embrace nature study for a year—or for whatever part of a year is possible for you.