Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: Reading The Headlines On Climate Change

20 minutes

Find Out: 20 Truths About Climate Change

20+ minutes

Take Action: Telling The Truth About Climate Change

5 minutes

Reflection

Tune In: Reading the headlines on climate change

Step 1

Project the following online newspaper headlines on the board, and work with students to read through them, explaining that they all relate to climate change in some way.

These headlines were all published in late 2023 or early 2024; you could add some more recent or locally relevant headlines of your own.

Step 2

Once complete, pose the following questions to your students

What do these headlines tell us about climate change?

Suggested answer: There is mention of ice changes, human health impacts, food shortages, animals needing to adapt to climate change, hot weather, and marine heatwaves. They mention different animals, plants and ecosystems, and include news about tourism and the economy. Overall, they indicate that climate change could impact many different parts and places in our world.

What kind of language is used in these headlines? Is it optimistic or pessimistic? Is it calming or alarming?

Suggested answer: Generally the language feels more alarming than calming, with terms like ‘not prepared’, ‘climate crisis’, ‘severe’ and ‘growing concerns’.

Are there any positive messages in these headlines?

Suggested answer: Even from these 6 headlines, we can see that people are creating solutions by moving animals away from at-risk habitats, thinking of new ways to protect animals and that some animals are already adapting. These headlines give us some hope that not everything is doomed, and there are things that can be done.

Step 3

Explain to your students that the language that we use around climate change is important. Feeling overwhelmed, upset or anxious about climate change makes it harder to take action, but meeting its challenges requires all of us to act. The thing about news headlines is that news editors look for headlines that grab the eye; scary headlines are one strategy for attracting attention. But how can we share the facts about climate change without scaring people?

Take a look at the most alarming headlines: can you work as a class to replace some of the words in these headlines to make them more hopeful? Or at least to make them less alarming?

For example:

Original: Hurricanes becoming so strong that new category needed, study says
New: Stronger hurricanes need a new category, study says

Work with students to rewrite other headlines to be more hopeful and positive, or at least less scary.

Notes:

Please note that many young people have strong feelings about climate change and can find it upsetting and challenging to discuss, especially when faced with headlines like these. Please reassure students by explaining that many people all around the world are working hard to meet the challenges posed by climate change and that those websites where these articles are sourced also include stories of these people and the great work that is also being done, and indeed, many of the stories attached to these headlines include those people.
An important part of talking about this topic is first to acknowledge the challenging bits and allow students time to talk about these issues. In this way, students are more likely to feel like their concerns about these issues are real, and that school is a good place to explore them. As a result, students are more likely to feel supported and be more invested in their learning. See the Talking About Climate Change fact sheet for more information.

Find Out: 20 truths about climate change

Step 1

Share the 20 Truths About Climate Change with students and encourage them to read through the list.

Step 2

After they have completed this task pose the question

Are there any truths that are unclear or that need clarification?

Work with students to clarify anything that is unclear. You could do this by conducting research online, or by sharing the Climate Change Fact Sheet.

Take Action: Telling the truth about climate change

Step 1

Students can now select a climate truth and use the truth to create one of the following activities (students could choose their own, or the teacher can assign an activity based on student ability and time available).

As students create their own texts, encourage them to choose language that is hopeful, positive, humourous or calming. How can they share the truth about climate change but not scare their audience?

Suggested activities:

Dig into one truth in more detail and conduct some research into this truth. You can then rewrite the truth as a longer informative paragraph (including references)
Create a short story based on a truth
Write a poem based on a truth (e.g. limerick, haiku or other)
Rewrite one truth in a way that could be understood by a 6-year-old. Try to use hopeful language; you don’t want to scare the 6-year-old!
Create two complementary illustrations for one of the truths; one illustration can present a picture based on the information provided in that truth, and the other illustration should present a more hopeful picture. You will probably need to do some research for the hopeful illustration to find out more about the solutions around this truth and how people are acting on this issue.
Use AI to create its version of one of the truths you’ve selected. Compare and contrast the original and AI truth, looking for similarities and differences, and assess how well each communicates this truth. What would you do differently?

Note: Set the word limit and sentence count for students. This could be based on time available or differentiated learning needs.

Students could then choose a different truth, and use it as the basis for a different activity. You can repeat as many times as you like with students choosing different truths and different activities each time.

Step 2

Provide an opportunity for students to share their work with others, either by sharing with a classmate for comparison and discussion or by presenting their work to the class.

Reflection

Students respond to the following question through class discussion:

I used to think…
But now I think...

Climate Literacy: 20 Truths About Climate Change

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