Virtual Field Trips

I try to go on a decent amount of field trips with my students throughout the year, especially because we live in New York City and there are so many opportunities to enhance what students are learning with real life experiences in some of the many famous museums, buildings, and social systems that exist around the city. However, it can be difficult to find experiences that allow students to truly envision and enter into the mindset of a suburban or rural community. Many of my students have exclusively experienced urban living. When we read texts about children living on a farm, in the woods, even on a deserted island, my students really struggle to connect to the experiences the author is describing. It is as though they are reading about a completely alien landscape. I never thought of how useful it could be to allow students to take a virtual field trip or a Google Lit Trip before. This would be a perfect way to help students visually enter into the worlds of some of the texts they are reading. This, in turn, would increase their connection to the text and their levels of engagement.