Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes	Part A: Lesson 1 recap
40+ minutes	Part B: Looking Forward
10-20 minutes	Reflection (may be compelted as homework)

Part A: Lesson 1 Recap

Step 1.

Begin this lesson by inviting students to recap the previous lesson. Engage students in a class discussion around the following questions:

What do we know about climate change?
What actions can we take to help climate change?
What is Earth Hour?
Why is a headline important?
Why is a leading paragraph important?

Part B: Looking forward

Step 1.

Remind students that in Lesson 1, they looked back at some stories that described actions Australians have taken over the past 10 years for climate change. Explain to students that as well as looking back over the last 10 years in celebration of their 10th anniversary, Earth Hour is also looking forward 10 years. Specifically, they are inviting kids – especially those around the age of 10 – to imagine how they will be newsmakers 10 years in the future. In this lesson, students are asked to think about what actions they can do now that will positively affect climate change 10 years in the future and how this action and the subsequent changes would be reported in the news.

The task for students is to:

Imagine an action that will help fight climate change that they could do now (could be an individual or group action)
Imagine how this action will make a positive change 10 years in the future and what this change will look like
Create a news piece based around this future change. The news piece could be a news story, or a TV news segment, or news presented in a futuristic format (what will the news look like in the future?).

The news piece will need to be created and based around the work students did in the previous lesson, with the story presented in the Inverted pyramid model of journalistic writing. All news pieces (including TV news segments) will need to be accompanied with a heading and a leading paragraph.

The teacher should decide whether the class should work in groups or as a class (instructions for creating the news piece are also available on the Student Worksheet for those students working in groups). Either way, before you begin this project, emphasise to students that even though they’re working in groups or as a class, each student should take responsibility for collecting evidence and artefacts about the work that they put into the project, including drafts of everything they create as part of the project. The most important thing for students to remember is that the PROCESS of completing this project is really important - perhaps even more than the final product. Students should aim to demonstrate the growth and learning that they experienced both personally and as a group as a result of facing the challenges involved in a project such as this.

Before commencing, provide students with the following rubric so that students are aware of the assessment requirements of this project: Assessment Rubric - Years 5 & 6.

Step 2.

It's time to decide on an idea. Break the class into groups or work as a class. The first step in making your news piece is to develop an idea of what action for climate change you want to focus on and how this would work as a story 10 years in the future.

On the board create a table with two columns. Label one column as “Action now” and the other column with “Future change”.

Give four or five sticky notes to each student. Invite students to write down actions that they could do now for climate change and to stick these actions under the “Action now” column. Spend several minutes collecting ideas. Once complete, group the ideas. Consider grouping according to topic (such as energy, waste or consumption).

Once you decided on a way to group your ideas, then you can start to think about how these ideas will affect change in the future. Ask students to look at the ideas in the “Action now” column and to think of what future benefits this action might see and add this to the "Future change" column. For example:

Action now	Future change
Walking to school	Fewer emissions
Reducing paper consumption	Rainforests saved
Eating seasonally	Fewer emissions

The next step is to build these ideas into the basis a story. A useful way of doing this is by adding in the 5W’s (Who, What, Why, Where and When – and maybe How). Clearly, as you are imagining a story written in the future you will need to invent some of the details.

The scale/calculation of the future change that will occur as a result of the proposed student action does not need to be technically accurate. For example, it is not necessary for students to calculate the actual amount of CO₂ they will save. Instead, what is important is that students demonstrate an understanding of how their own behaviour can affect positive change, and the creativity they demonstrate in communicating this information to an audience.

Encourage students to be creative! For example:

In 2017, year 5 students at Greater Mouse Primary School pledged to fight climate change by cutting paper consumption at their school by 90%, based on 2016 consumption levels. For the past 10 years they have achieved their goal, and as a result, they have saved an area of rainforest the size of 37 football fields from being chopped, pulped and turned into paper. This rainforest also acts as a carbon sink, annually absorbing carbon dioxide.

Work with students to test several of their ideas using the 5W’s to see which one makes a good story.

Once complete, invite students to vote for the idea they are most interested in or most inspired by. Depending on whether you are working as a class or in groups, allocate stories to students or select one to pursue as a class.

You have to dream before your dreams can come true.
A.P.J. AbDul kalam

Step 3.

Now that you have decided on a story, it’s time to decide what presentation format this story is best suited to. Is it best suited to a written format, such as newspaper article with images to complement the story? Or will a TV news style segment tell the story better? Or, is there a different format that might work better? Perhaps students can imagine a futuristic format for presenting news.

Step 4.

If you’ve decided to write a newspaper article it’s time to start the first draft. Remind students of the Inverted pyramid model of journalistic writing and to think about the following points:

What important information do you need to include?
How will you engage and inspire your readers?
What language will you use? Will you use any persuasive techniques?

If you’re creating a TV news segment it’s time to write the script. Advise students that the Inverted pyramid model of journalistic writing can also be applied to TV news stories. Ask students to think about the following when writing their scripts:

How will you engage and inspire your audience?
What language will you use? Will you use any persuasive techniques?
What information will you present visually and what information will you present verbally?

These tips might also be useful:

Step 5.

What resources and assets do you need? Those writing a newspaper article will need to think about the following:

Do you need photos?
Where will you get these photos?
Can you take them yourself?

Remember that many photos on the Internet are subject to copyright – you will need to acknowledge the source of any images you find online.

Those creating a TV news segment will need to think about the following:

Where will you film your story? Can you use an app such as Green Screen?
What props or costumes will you need?
What will you use to film your news segment? A tablet or camera?

Ensure you have parental permission for student appearing in films or photographs.

Step 6.

Advise students of the amount of time they have to complete their news piece.

Tips for guiding students through a project:

- be clear about time allocation - remind students how much time they have to complete the project and encourage students to be realistic about the tasks they have to complete in that time
- keep communication high, making sure everyone has everything that they need to complete the work they have been allocated and that everyone knows what they should be doing
- talk to your principal, parents and staff about what the students are doing and how/why they are completing their projects.
remind students to prepare for setbacks and encourage them to continue even in the face of obstacles or challenges.

Step 7.

Encourage students to edit and check their work before sharing their work with the class.

Those creating a newspaper article should check:

Spelling and grammar
That they story follows the inverted pyramid
That images complement the story and don’t confuse the reader or lead the reader away from the thread of the story
That the article clearly conveys the story/issue you are relating
That the headline is attention grabbing
That the leading paragraph has a hook or draws the reader in

Those creating a TV news segment should:

Check that all spoken parts can be clearly heard (make sure music or background noise isn’t too loud)
Check that they story follows the inverted pyramid
Check that visual features complement the story and don’t confuse the reader
Check that the news piece clearly conveys the story/issue you are relating
Create a headline is attention grabbing
Create a lead that has a hook or draws the reader in

Provide students with a copy of the Assessment Rubric - Years 5 & 6 to help guide them through what is expected of them.

Step 8.

Consider asking students to share their news pieces, either with each other if they have worked in groups, or with another class if it was a class project.

Encourage readers/audience members to use the Assessment Rubric - Years 5 & 6 to provide feedback.

Reflection

1. Invite students to work independently to compete the following reflection questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What did I learn during the creation of our news piece?
What parts of our news piece were the most successful and why?
What parts of our news piece were the least successful and why? How would we improve these parts?
Why is it important that we imagine the future that we want to see?

2. Invite students to think about the Earth Hour theme for this year, which can be found on the Earth Hour website. What action will students pledge to now to help reduce the impacts of climate change in the future? Students can complete this Pledge poster, or create their own.

Take it further

Has your school been involved with Earth Hour before? Have you got a record of our involvement? Consider creating an exhibition/display to celebrate your involvement and to share how far your school has come!

Earth Hour - News Makers of the Future (Part 2)

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