Climate Storytelling Lesson for the Classroom

Climate Generation

In this activity, students will use journaling prompts to make personal connections to climate change including what they have observed, what motivates them to interact with the subject, and possible connections to resilience. They use these ideas to construct a climate story and reflect on their perspectives in small groups and as a class.

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Notes from our reviewers

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Consider extending the activity by tasking students with finding an example of a climate story in outside research. Students may present a summary to the class and explain why that story resonated with them. Consider working through the "active listening skills" activity in the [link https://cleanet.org/clean/literacy/tools/empowerment/index.html 'CLEAN Climate Change Mental Health lesson set.'] Prepare examples for each set of prompts to model a response for students with each round of journaling. Keep in mind that some students may have experienced traumatic events, such as floods and wildfires, related to climate change. Set the lesson up by discussing active listening and respect for the pair share portions of the lesson.
This resource does an excellent job of connecting students to climate change through their personal experiences and perspectives. It could be strengthened by encouraging students to find real data that supports their subjective experience. This lesson could represent the beginning of scientific inquiry in which students define a question or phenomenon they are curious to investigate. It could also help them consider how to tell stories about their experiences and investigations. Passed initial science review - expert science review pending.
This resource includes a teacher guide with journal and discussion prompts. It could benefit by including a scaffold for how to lead a discussion that may expose insecurities and examples of trauma related to climate change. Educators should acknowledge this possibility and support an inclusive and supportive discussion that serves to broaden the class perspective. Students will need to have a basic understanding of climate change impacts and the concept of resilience in multiple contexts. This resource could also be strengthened by providing more information about the significance of writing and sharing a climate story with classmates, elected officials, and leaders in the community. Teachers may want to emphasize this point. This lesson would be a great addition to a unit on climate change in any subject as an introductory activity. Finding ways to help students understand and discuss their own narratives can help provide students with hope and agency.
A broken hyperlink for Climate Generation appears on page 3, however, this website is easy to navigate to and the error does not affect the ease of use. To access the lesson plan, the teacher must create an account on the Climate Generation website and then download the plan through a checkout process. Once completed, the user receives a link to download a PDF of the lesson plan via email.