Amy's Balancing Act - Books on Climate Change

Australian curriculum content descriptions:

Year 3 English:

• Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning and begin to evaluate texts by drawing on a growing knowledge of context, text structures and language features (ACELY1680)

Year 4 English:

• Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts (ACELY1692)

Syllabus outcomes: EN2-4A.

Relevant parts of Year 3 English achievement standards: Students identify literal and implied meaning connecting ideas in different parts of a text. 

Relevant parts of Year 4 English achievement standards: Students describe literal and implied meaning connecting ideas in different texts.

General capabilities: Literacy, Critical and Creative Thinking.

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability. 

Level of teacher scaffolding: High – Teachers will be required to guide students through the learning and support during independent work. 

• A device capable of presenting a video to the class
• Everything you need to know about energy factsheet – one copy per four students
• Student workbooks
• Text – Amy’s Balancing Act. You can find a physical copy of the book here. You can also access the book for educational purposes here, using the password SchoolAccess.

This lesson is designed to build students’ competencies in the following skills:

• Critical thinking
• Collaboration

Amy’s Balancing Act is a story about the clean energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables and energy storage. The story captures how this transition requires an openness to change and a shift in mindset: from fixating on rigid control to working flexibly with diverse technologies.