Designed to motivate a standard English class at the 9th grade level (Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School in Massachusetts), this writing unit centers on a field trip to Gloucester, Massachusetts. Broad lists of problems (tasks) are presented in 3 lists, since the original 3 groups of students (7 or 8 students to a group) were asked to solve their problems in a group effort. Examples of these problems are: get the names of 6 fishing boats; find out how many kinds of doughnuts "Dunkin Doughnuts" makes; find out where Fitz High Lane lived; get a rock from "the cut" and described "the cut"; find out who Winslow Homer was; make a map of Gloucester; and find Lloyd Battles and draw a picture of an instrument he makes. Learning goals and teaching objectives are defined and include the following: provide an in-depth experience for an English class on which to base written compositions in creative writing, factual reporting, descriptive essay, and poetry; use exploration of the city of Gloucester as a means of defining the term "setting"; increase students' first-hand knowledge of the area's history; develop student self-confidence via planned activities necessitating interaction with peers and strangers; encourage personal growth via group interaction in handling responsibility; vitalize a standard English course by utilizing an action-oriented approach; provide practice in writing by assigning 5 different introductory paragraphs for 5 different stories based on 5 different experiences, people, or settings encountered during the trip. (JC)