Activity Introduction
Subjects: English.
Year Levels: Year 6 and Year 7.
This lesson is part of the wider unit of work IPCC Climate Change Solutions.
Teaching Time: 60 minutes.
Quick summary:
Pre-assessment task: discover how much your students already understand about climate change and carbon emissions as they write a descriptive piece about a utopian climate change future.
Summative assessment task: Ask students to construct a vision of a utopian climate change future incorporating everything they have learned over the course of this unit about climate change and carbon emissions.
Cool would like to thank the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation and The Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation for generously supporting the development of these lessons.
21st-century skills:
Australian Curriculum Mapping
Content descriptions: Year 6 English:
- Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, choosing and experimenting with text structures, language features, images and digital resources appropriate to purpose and audience (ACELY1714)
- Re-read and edit students’ own and others’ work using agreed criteria and explaining editing choices (ACELY1715)
Relevant parts of the Year 6 English achievement standards: Students understand how the use of text structures can achieve particular effects. They analyse and explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used by different authors to represent ideas, characters and events. They select and use evidence from a text to explain their response to it. Students understand how language features and language patterns can be used for emphasis. They show how specific details can be used to support a point of view. Students create detailed texts elaborating on key ideas for a range of purposes and audiences. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, using a variety of strategies for effect. They demonstrate an understanding of grammar, and make considered vocabulary choices to enhance cohesion and structure in their writing.
Content descriptions: Year 7 English:
- Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, selecting aspects of subject matter and particular language, visual, and audio features to convey information and ideas (ACELY1725)
- Edit for meaning by removing repetition, refining ideas, reordering sentences and adding or substituting words for impact (ACELY1726)
Relevant parts of the Year 7 English achievement standards: Students understand how text structures can influence the complexity of a text and are dependent on audience, purpose and context. They demonstrate understanding of how the choice of language features, images and vocabulary affects meaning. Students explain issues and ideas from a variety of sources, analysing supporting evidence and implied meaning. They select specific details from texts to develop their own response, recognising that texts reflect different viewpoints. Students understand how the selection of a variety of language features can influence an audience. They understand how to draw on personal knowledge, textual analysis and other sources to express or challenge a point of view. Students create structured and coherent texts for a range of purposes and audiences. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, using language features to engage the audience. When creating and editing texts they demonstrate understanding of grammar, use a variety of more specialised vocabulary and accurate spelling and punctuation.
Syllabus outcomes: EN3-2A, EN4-4B, EN4-2A
General capabilities: Literacy, Critical and Creative Thinking.
Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability.
Topic: Climate change. You can find more lessons on this topic here.
Level of teacher scaffolding: Low – Discuss the IPCC report with students, support them in independent work.
Resources required:
- Example Text – A utopian climate change future (optional)
- Student individual writing materials
- Student Worksheet (optional)
- Whiteboard.
Related Professional Development: If you’re interested in learning more about how to approach challenging topics around climate change and sustainability in your classroom through a Hope and Optimism lens, consider our PD course.
Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.