A lesson in text comprehension under the trees the case of a group of primary school teachers in training By Stéphane Bonnet (Aix-Marseille University) – Part 1

After my experience UNI-T “Outside school” in Italy, I had the opportunity to teach for 3 hours a group of new teachers in training at the Inspé of Digne les Bains. The topic I chose was : how could the outdoor school help the comprehension of texts for the pupils? To deal with the subject, we all went outdoors, in the magnificent park of the Inspé in Digne. We played the first games in a circle as in the Sapienza park: the movement of each one, the rhythm of the names… etc. The students paired up according to the rhythm of the names. I took a passage by the writer Marielle Macé from her essay: Nos cabanes. I read the text entitled: Thinking like a forest. Then I asked the groups to write a small text, inspired by this reading, on a plant in the park that they had chosen, in the first person and in the present tense. After reading all the texts, we discussed the experience. Then, in the library, they had to choose a children’s album that took place outdoors and with a link to the chosen vegetable. The assignment was to prepare and present to the group an interdisciplinary reading and comprehension lesson starting from the chosen album and the vegetable for children in elementary or kindergarten classes. My aim is to analyze these lesson plans.