"What new ways of seeing might your students discover if you took your next lesson outside?"
This blog explores how a reading walk can help connect students with nature, stimulate their imaginations and deepen their understanding of the natural world.
Based on a five-year research project carried out by Professor John Holmes and Dr Dion Dobrzynski at Ruskin Land in Wyre Forest, Dion explains the ins and outs of delivering a meaningful reading walk.
Connecting young people with the natural world
"As eco‑anxiety rises, literacy declines and screens dominate daily life, many young people feel increasingly cut off from nature. A reading walk provides a practical way to restore those vital connections and deepen students’ understanding of the living world.
By taking students outside to listen to short passages from fiction, poetry or non‑fiction, you invite them to slow down, breathe, and see their surroundings with fresh attention. Reading walks have transformative potential, helping students imagine different ways of living with nature at a time when such creative thinking matters more than ever."
Planning your reading walk
"Forests can provide the perfect environment for a reading walk. However, any accessible greenspace will do. Choose 3-5 stopping points along a short route where you can pause to read and talk. Look for features that might spark discussion: a fallen branch, a patch of moss, a sudden opening in the canopy.
Select brief passages that relate to your subject. We suggest no more than five minutes to read aloud.
Encourage students to listen rather than read along. The aim is to let the text and the place interact in their minds."
Cross‑curricular learning in motion
Reading walks work across KS3-KS5 and across subjects.
- English: explore setting, voice, and the role of imagination.
- Geography: examine landscapes, ecosystems and human-environment relationships.
- Biology: observe decomposition, succession, biodiversity and adaptation in real ecological contexts.
Because students move, listen and observe together, reading walks naturally encourage interdisciplinary thinking - helping them join the dots between scientific, literary and personal ways of understanding the world.
They also support wellbeing. Gentle movement, shared listening and time outdoors help students regulate stress, reset attention, and feel a sense of wonder in nature.
Questions that spark curiosity
Good questions help students connect the text to what they can sense around them. You might ask:
- What does this passage help you notice here?
- How does this description change how you understand this place?
- What future does the text invite you to imagine for landscapes like this?
These prompts encourage essential skills like close observation and creative thinking.
Try a reading walk with your class
If you’d like ready‑to‑use materials, a range of free resources are available online at the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR) education platform. They include:
- a Reading walk guide and suggested Forest reading list.
- A‑Level activity packs for English Literature, Biology and Geography.
- two 360° virtual reading walks of Ruskin Land in the Wyre Forest National Nature Reserve.
- a short mini‑lecture on fantasy fiction and forest ecology.
These resources offer you practical tools, subject‑specific ideas and immersive examples to help you run your own walk.
Get in touch
If you have questions, would like to share feedback about the reading walk project or share you experiences, you’re warmly invited to get in touch at readingwalks@contacts.bham.ac.uk.
