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Curriculum as Inquiry Project - What Do We Know about Our Climate Change?

Liuchen Meng
Educ. 533 – Forming and Reforming Elementary Curriculum
Dr. Gayle
Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania
05, Nov. 2021
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

CONTEXT AND STORY OF THE QUESTIONS: ........................................................................... 3

SETTING: ............................................................................................................................................. 3

STORY OF THE QUESTION: .................................................................................................................. 3

EMERGING PHILOSOPHY: .................................................................................................................... 5

TAKE AWAY: ....................................................................................................................................... 6

TEXT SET: ............................................................................................................................................ 8

PRIMARY TEXT: .................................................................................................................................. 8

SUPPLEMENTAL TEXTS: ...................................................................................................................... 8

WEBSITES: ........................................................................................................................................... 9

VIDEOS: ............................................................................................................................................... 9

WEEK 1: .............................................................................................................................................. 10

WEEK 2: .............................................................................................................................................. 11

DAY 1 ................................................................................................................................................ 11

DAY 2 ................................................................................................................................................ 14

DAY 3 ................................................................................................................................................ 18

DAY 4 ................................................................................................................................................ 22

DAY 5 ................................................................................................................................................ 27

WEEK 3: .............................................................................................................................................. 31

REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................... 32
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Context and Story of the Question:

What Do We Know about Our Climate Change?

Setting: This curriculum is designed for students in 4th grade. I envision a group size of

about 10 students. Students from various social and cultural backgrounds are welcomed in this

class, and the most common speaking, writing, listening, and reading language in the classroom

is English. The classroom setting for this curriculum will be in an after-school program since

after-school programs usually offer flexible spaces for different activities that help students

engage in the meaningful learning context. Moreover, in after-school programs, students do

not need to follow rigid school rules and they are not assessed by the hierarchy of academic

ability or standardizations (Simon & Campano, 2013). Furthermore, after-school programs

facilitate an intimate relationship between knowledge and teaching (Simson & Campano, 2013).

Since the multimodal pedagogy will be implemented in this curriculum, I envision an after-

school program as a place for students to connect their verbal and written language with play,

move and gesture to make meaning (Falchi et al., 2014). Therefore, an after-school program

will be my best choice to foster students’ learning in various modes.

Story of the Question:

In my past learning experience, when teachers teach students topics in geography, they

usually conduct a lesson and narrate the content from the textbooks. Teachers teach basic

concepts and theories from the textbook, and students often memorize these basic ideas from

the textbook to cope with the standardized tests. However, simple memorization does not

facilitate meaningful learning, and such memorization fades quickly over time. Moreover,

when students memorize the concepts from the textbooks, they will feel bored in the course
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content and probably lose motivation in the course subject. Furthermore, in my previous

learning, there is often a fixed answer for questions raised in class. Therefore, I think it is

important to extend students’ knowledge beyond textbooks and make connections between

course materials and their lives. In my opinion, learning is the goal, and literacy is a tool to

help students achieve their goals (Hoffman, 2017). In this curriculum, I want to work with

students collaboratively and provide them opportunities to explore the curriculum topic.

Students will be engaged in learning through various learning activities. There are no absolute

right or wrong questions, and teachers’ role is just to support them in the learning discourse.

As a result, students could express their ideas freely, and raise any questions that they are

confused about.

The essential question for this project is “what do we know about our climate change?” I think

this question is relevant to students’ lives since we are all experiencing climate change in the

world. Also, this topic is suitable for students from different social and cultural backgrounds

because climate change is a global phenomenon. Students will explore this topic through

various learning modalities. Since this curriculum is conducted in the after-school program,

students can engage both inside and outside of the classroom to cultivate their learning

experience. Therefore, students could extend their vison beyond classroom context. Some

themes that are potentially related to the topic of climate change might be:

1. What do you observe about climate change in your life / around your neighborhood?

2. What is climate change?

3. What causes climate change?

4. How does climate change affect our lives?

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5. How do we fight against climate change?

For this project, I want to provide students with a range of related topics that they can engage

with, and I hope they can use what they learned to examine or solve some practical issues in

their fields in the future.

Emerging Philosophy:

In traditional classrooms, it is often teacher-centered. Students usually complete tasks

based on teachers’ instructions. However, this form of learning hinders students’ progress in

the learning process. In 21st century classrooms, the classroom should be student-centered.

Teachers should listen to students’ thoughts and implement pedagogies to cultivate their critical

thinking in the learning process. Teachers’ role should be supporters rather than demanders in

teaching. Moreover, teachers should not view students as “empty minds” that passively receive

information. Such learning is called the “banking” education and might turn students into

automatons. This learning format negates the very nature of human beings (Freire, 1970).

Instead, teachers should value everyone, and believe each student brings unique knowledge

into classrooms.

In my classrooms, literacy is a tool that not only helps students to learn academically but

also a tool that can foster students’ understanding of the physical world. According to Freire

(1987), “reading the world always precedes reading the word, and reading the word implies

continually reading the world” (p.35). When literacy is connected to students’ lives, everyday

life becomes a form of learning engagement. This helps students to think critically about the

world and connect their lived knowledge with the class content (Saavedra, 2019). Students will

have the opportunity to read and talk about environmental phenomena in their communities or
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neighbors. They will also participate in short writings to illustrate what they learned regarding

climate change. Students will share the short writings with the class to exchange ideas that help

them understand this topic.

In fostering students’ learning, I will implement multimodal pedagogy in this curriculum.

By implementing multimodalities, students could use various modes together in a meaning-

making process. It includes but is not limited to print, speech, visuals, animation, gesture, gaze,

and sound. Instead of the traditional teaching-learning approach, students can utilize different

resources that help them engage with and comprehend our texts. Multimodal learning allows

students to develop skills in all modes. In this process, students not only engage with literacy

but also acquire necessary skills that when they enter society. Moreover, multimodalities

learning expands students’ creativity and inventiveness. Students can approach course topics

from different angles and demonstrate their knowledge through thought-provoking projects.

Therefore, the multimodalities curriculum lets students “subvert the expectations and demands

of one-size-fits-all literacy curriculum” (Masterson, 2020, p.16). Furthermore, the

multimodality classroom learning will offer students autonomy in the learning process. Finally,

I hope every student feels happy and relaxed in the classroom.

Take Away:

In addition to the course materials learned, I hope my students feel free to express their

feelings and thoughts. In addition to learning in class, I hope they can make friends with fellow

classmates. Students are encouraged to interact with their peers and exchange ideas. Students

will also familiarize themselves with each other’s backgrounds to get to know each other.

Additionally, I want students to aware that they are valued in this class, and each of them makes
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the classrooms diverse. Everyone’s work is appreciated in my classroom.

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Text Set:

Primary Text:

Our Climate Change by UNICEF – picture book

This book provides readers with the knowledge on climate change, how it affects us and

how we could deal with it. This picture book explains the concept of climate change in an easier

understandable manner and language.

Supplemental Texts:

What a Waste by Jess French – picture book

Demonstrates the problem related with the waste, and how the polluted environment

affects our everyday lives. Demonstrate how we can do to reduce waste pollution and protect

our environment.

Our Planet, Our Future – Fighting Climate Change Together – magazine

Explains how climate change affects us, the major issues related to climate change, and

how we fight the climate change around the world.

What is Climate Change by Gail Herman – picture book

Explains what climate change is, talks about how the change begins, and introduce

problems related to climate change.

What’s the Issue – Climate Change by Toms Jackson & Cristina Guitian – picture book

Illustrates the issues related to climate change, such as greenhouse gas effect, carbon cycle,

and global warming, etc.

The Magic School Bus: The Climate Change – picture book

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Empower readers by explaining how one can help solve the crisis of global warming

through conservation, recycling, and use of alternative energy.

Websites:

https://climatekids.nasa.gov/kids-guide-to-climate-change/ - Climate Kids NASA

Topics related to climate change, the causes of climate change, and how we do to protect

climate.

https://www.lordgrey.org.uk/~f014/usefulresources/aric/Resources/Teaching_Packs/Key_Sta

ge_3/Weather_Climate/08.html -Article for climate pattern

https://lotusarise.com/temperature-belts-of-world-upsc/ - Article and graphs for temperature

belts

https://scijinks.gov/climate-zones/ - Climate Types

https://climate.nasa.gov/resources/global-warming-vs-climate-change/ - Article and graph for

global warming

Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkvPdUtYhX8 - An introduction to climate change

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgvDuLcL4yQ - Talks about the greenhouse gas effect,

how it works, and how we can reduce it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYcySbefub0 - Explains how climate change affect our

bodies.

Music Video:

Climate Change Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn9PhiDJp-A - Help students

understand human activities that cause climate change.

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Week 1:

During the first week, the class will have a brief introduction at the beginning to get to

know each other. There will be some ice-breaking activities for students to get familiar with

the classroom environment. We will be exploring the difference between weather and climate

change. Students will first try to find out the difference on their own. They could ask their

parents, science teachers, or search for ideas online. In this process, students see literacy comes

from their families, communities, and themselves (Saavedra, 2019). Students will take note of

what they have learned from parents, teachers, and the internet. When they come to class, they

will make posters on this topic in our class session. The posters can be hand-made and or

digitally. We will hang these posters on our classroom’s walls and students will look at each

other’s posters. Students will jot down ideas that they find interesting or surprising. Then they

will share what they learn about the difference between weather and climate with the whole

class. In this way, students will interact and learn from their peers. We will also watch a short

video that talks about the difference between weather and climate in class. This short video

will provide students with ideas on the topic they researched. These pre-class activities serve

as an introduction to the topic that we will be exploring during the second week.

Short Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fANLICuYB8

“Whether vs. Climate – Difference Between Whether and Climate?”

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Week 2:

Day 1

Focus Chapter 3: Code Breaking – Early Reading / Entering the Text

Students will understand:

Objective Ø Understand different points in the text
Ø Different elements in text affect how we read

Ø The website from NASA about the difference between weather and climate
Text Ø The website from NASA: What is Climate Change
Ø Our Climate Change (past and present climate)
Ø Look at the poster of climate change
Ø https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkvPdUtYhX8 Watch a video on the
introduction for climate change
Activities Ø Read aloud the text on climate change
Ø Small group discussion of their observation of climate change in daily life
Ø Read aloud the text on past and present climate change
Ø Write on classroom journal
Ø Visual presentation of their understanding on climate change (drawing and
Assessment
making posters)

During the first week, we have introduced the concept of weather and climate. Students

already have some knowledge on the topic of climate. In today’s lesson, we will explore the

topics related to climate in more detail with various activities. I will start the class by first

reading aloud the passage from the NASA website focusing on the difference between weather

and climate. I will reinforce the idea that weather is “temporary and can change quickly,

whereas climate describes the typical weather condition in an entire region for over a long

period of time”. Since the pictures in this passage has visual presentations on both weather and

climate, students will better understand this idea. Then, I will screen a video that provides an

introduction to climate change. After watching this video, students will read aloud the text from

the NASA website of “What is climate change?”. The benefit of read-aloud can promote
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students’ interest while building a sense of classroom community. It allows students to talk

about shared literacy experience (Wilson, 2002). Also, reading aloud develops students’ oral

language, vocabulary, content knowledge and inferential thinking (Kessler et al., 2020).

Students who have experienced difficulty in learning to read could listen to the content their

peers read and engage in classroom learning. After the read-aloud session, I will explain some

technical terms in this short paragraph to students. Technical terms that will be explained are:

average temperature,

glaciers,

precipitation,

global climate,

global warming,

greenhouse gas effect,

sea level,

rain season,

vegetation,

After explaining these technical terms, students will join the small groups to discuss

climate change they have observed in their daily life. Since the topic of climate change is

related to our daily experience, I think it is important for students to connect this topic to their

everyday life. In this process, they interact with peers to learn the evidence of climate change.

Then students will write down their experience and observation in the natural world on our

shared classroom journal.

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Next, students will take turns to read aloud the text on past and present climate change.

Students will read the pages from 9 to 12. The content they will be reading covers past and

present rain seasons, temperatures, water supply, trees and vegetation cover, and food harvests.

While reading, students will encounter and familiar with some text features such as the

headings, table of contents, and labeled diagrams. I will teach them about the function these

features as well as how to use them in writings.

Moreover, during the reading session, I will pause students and let them look at the print

to better understand the texts because students can make use of illustrations to understand the

meaning of the text (Wilson, 2002). When students encounter a difficult vocab, I will let

students draw upon the contextual information to predict the meaning of the vocab. Then, I

will ask students to use another word that they think is appropriate to replace the unknown

vocab. If students are still struggling with the vocabs’ meaning, I will try to explain the

definition to them.

At the end of today’s lesson, students will make posters to demonstrate the phenomena of

past and present climate change. I will also use this activity as a way to see whether students

understand what we have learned today. Students will choose one or two words that are

explained during our first read-aloud session to demonstrate their understanding of climate

change. They will also imitate the text features such as headings and diagrams in their posters

to show how they will use these features in their writings. The reason for students to modal

these text features is to provide students a chance to try these features on their own.
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Day 2

Focus Ch.4 Text Participant: Meaning Making

Students will understand:

Objective Ø Different ways to make meaning of a text
Ø People understand same text differently

Article: Whether and Climate

Text Article: Temperature Belts of the World
Article: What are Different Climate Types
Ø Role Play
Ø Painting
Activities: Ø Summary
Ø Q&A session
Ø Small and Large Group Participation
Assessment Ø Asking questions

For today’s lesson, we will be focusing on Wilson’s chapter 5: Text Participate: Meaning

Making. According to Wilson (2002), “the ways we make meaning or understand a text are

linked directly with our reading purposes” (p.74). Therefore, when we read for today’s texts,

students will carry a purpose when read articles about various climates around the globe. With

this purpose in mind, they will comprehend the texts much better.

I will begin the class today with a warm-up. I will divide students into two groups and

provide each group with a poster. Each poster will have a specific question on it. The question

for each group: “What do you wear in different seasons in your homeland?”; “How does

temperature vary in your homeland?” Students will respond to the questions individually but

silently. If they are satisfied with what they respond to, they can stop. Then, I will let each

group share their answers with the whole class and compare the similarities and differences in

their responses. The goal of this warm-up is to make students aware climate varies across

different places and regions.

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I will then let students read aloud the article Temperature Belts of the World. First of all,

I will ask students to look at the graph of the location of temperature belts on our globe. In this

way, students will learn the name and location of temperature belts on earth. They will also be

aware of how temperature belts divide heat zones into temperature, torrid, and frigid zone.

Then, students will read aloud the detailed explanation of the heat zone characteristics within

each region that the temperature belts divide. When they complete the read-aloud session, I

will ask them the question “what do you think the climate might be like in each heat zone?”

Students will discuss with each other, then paint images to show what they think the climate

looks like. By painting images, students enhance their understanding of the descriptive texts.

This helps students to “understand the capacity of words to create strong visual images”

(Wilson, 2002, p.92). Also, painting is a concrete way to demonstrate how they use their

knowledge with their perception of the meaning of the text to construct mental representations

(Duke et al., 2011).

Next, students will read the article What are Different Climate Types. During the previous

activity, they have painted the climate in their mind. In this section, I will introduce students to

the specific classifications of climate to help them recognize the main climate types. The five

main climate types on Earth: Tropical, Dry, Temperate, Continental, and Polar. Students will

read this article individually. They will focus on the part that illustrates the unique climate and

match their paintings with each of the climate types to visualize the difference between climate

types. Since this paragraph of the text is relatively short, students will also complete a summary

chart of what they read after the comparing. I will provide each student with a chart that

contains the information they need to fill in. The texts in this article are factual texts and written
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to inform. When we read factual texts, we often collect information from the text. Thus, the

text is a vehicle for us to obtain information (Goodman, 2005). It is important for students to

take notes while they are reading. Students will develop the summarization and notes taken

ability from factual texts (Wilson, 2002).

The Summary Chart:

Climate Type: Temperate Belt Heat Zone Unique Climate

Tropical

Dry

Temperate

Continental

Polar

Then students will read the section on “climate differences around the world” in the article

Whether and Climate. Being aware of the climate types, students now will look at the

representative places of each climate type and learn the climate pattern of these places. I will

ask students to cover the description of climate patterns using their hands and predict the

climate pattern based on temperate belt and heat zone of each representative place. According

to Wilson, “reading is not word naming. Having children predict what a text might be about

develops the expectation that text is about something, that readers read to make meaning”

(p.75). Students will use the text we read previously and the summary chart to help them make

predictions. After that, they can double-check the texts to verify their understanding.

At the end of this class, I will let students ask questions on the part that they are still

confused about. I will assign students with red and green cards. If a student raises a red card,
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that means s/he can ask a question. If a student raises a green card, that means s/he can respond

to the question. Students are encouraged to ask questions, and they will share individual

interpretations to help the questioner understand today’s class topic. Asking questions shows

students are actively engaged with texts. It demonstrates they are thinking while reading texts.

If students are meaning-makers, they must formulate their questions rather than always

respond to teacher-posed questions (Wilson, 2002). Having students raise questions, I can see

their comprehension and the part they are confused about. Moreover, by listening to students

who respond to the questions, I can join the responder and offer alternative responses to extend

students’ thinking.
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Day 3

Focus Ch. 5 – Using Text: Reading for a purpose

Ø Compare different genre in reading

Objective Ø Learn various elements in text
Ø Writing with specific purpose

Ø What a Waste
Text
Ø Our Changing Climate

Ø Read aloud the text

Ø Group Discussion on elements in text
Activities
Ø Listen to a song on global warming
Ø Watch Video on Global warming

Assessment Ø Writing Information Reports

Today’s lesson focus on the chapter on using text. As we read for a purpose, we also write

for a purpose (Wilson, 2002). Purposeful reading and writing will help students better

understand and use the text they encounter because literacy is a social practice (Luke &

Freebody, 1999). Besides reading, students also need to be aware that writing with audience

and purpose in mind. Therefore, in today’s lesson, students will focus on text structure and how

we can make use of the text.

For today’s lesson, I will begin the class by showing students a graph of global surface

average temperature relative to the year 1880 to 2020. We will discuss the temperature

tendency on this graph. Then students will read the text on the part that talks about what is

global warming. After students finish reading this piece, I will encourage students to reflect on

why the temperature continues to rise. The reason for the reflection is that it makes students

think about concepts in the text with no interruption from others (Wilson, 2002). It provides

students with an opportunity to explore and form ideas in private ways.

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Then I will play a song on “Everyday life and Global Warming”. The rhythm and lyrics

will help students easily understand how global warming affects our daily life. With the

multimodal format of literacy in this song, students will also engage with greater ease

(Vasudevan, 2010). Then students will watch a video on the cause of global warming. They

will watch this video for the first 5 minutes and have a general idea of natural and human causes.

After watching this video, they will read the book Our Changing Climate (pp.23-24; pp.27-35).

They will read the part that illustrates both natural and human causes in depth. In addition to

comprehend the cause of global warming, students also need to examine and think about the

style of language, different writing elements in the text, and artwork in with the text. In groups

of 3 or 4, students will discuss what texts features they find, and each group will choose one

person to share his or her findings with the whole class. I will jump in to talk about the features

of factual text by drawing from the understanding of students’ existing repertoires that are

relevant for them (Luke & Freebody, 1999). Students will learn how the author uses

informational texts to provide facts and information.

After the whole class learned text features, I will ask them questions:

“What is table content for?”

“How does this text begin?”

“In what ways does this text begin differently from a story that you read?”

“What do you notice about the graph in the factual text?”

We will be exploring these questions together, and I will hold a mini-lecture on this part to let

students understand the text structure in a factual text. Then I will let students re-read the text

but reading aloud this time. Students will come up with a list of questions from the text. These
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questions will be written on the whiteboard. Questions could be the causes of climate change,

or it could be the question related to how a piece of text is written in this reading. After the

question list is composed, I will demonstrate how to use the table of content to find the relevant

section. I will select one question from the list, then turn to the table of contents, read the book

sections and ponder aloud to show how I would find the answer. Students can jump in to offer

their suggestions in finding the correct section and answer. Next, in a group of 5, students will

find the answers to the rest of the questions by using the strategy I demonstrated. Then they

will share with the whole class what they have learned. In this way, they will learn to read

factual text from information reports.

In the next session, students will read aloud the section on “Global warming in Different

Places” (pp.14-15) from the book What a Waste. When they read, students will be thinking

about the author’s purpose in writing the text. They will define: whether the author writes to

inform facts about global warming, explain how global warming works, or instruct about

fighting for global warming. Moreover, students will think about the intended audience of the

text. Students will first discuss this in small groups, then they will take turns and talk about it

as a whole class. Here, students work as text analysts and engage with critical reading and

thinking. They will learn how the author shapes texts to demonstrate his purpose and express

meaning to the target audiences.

To help students differentiate different genres, I will assign students to two groups. Then

I will place a collection of books about global warming for each group. The books include

narratives, historical books, realistic literature. I will ask them to sort the books into storybooks

and factual books. Then, they will inform me how they sort the books. One student from each
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group will write the reasons for the decisions on the whiteboard. This process will allow me to

familiarize myself with students’ existing knowledge about genres, and it helps students to

recognize the characteristic of factual texts. The benefit of competence in the factual text is that

students can learn how texts are shaped differently and obtain necessary skills to access tertiary

education (Wilson, 2002).

Now we learned a lot about the causes of climate change. In the last section, students will

write an informational text about two paragraphs on the topic “Challenges Global Warming

Bring to Us”. In their writing, they will make clear who they write to (audiences) and why they

write this piece (purpose). They will also integrate the text elements we read for today. For

students who have difficulties in composing essays, I will help them brainstorm some ideas

and topics and provide sources that help them to find the information they need.

In this writing process, students are text users. They learn how to crate and shape texts to

achieve their purpose (Wilson, 2002). Moreover, as Luke and Freebody (1999) point out,

“effective literacy draws a repertoire of practices that allow learners, as they engage in reading

and writing activities, to participate in understanding and composing meaningful written, visual,

and spoken texts (p.5). In this case, students compose meaningful written texts with purpose

and audience in mind.

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Day 4

Focus Ch. 6 Critical Literacy: Reading as Text Analyst

Students will understand:

Ø All writing is human constructed
Objective Ø Writing involves writers make decisions
Ø Writers have values
Ø Writers’ values impact on the ways they shape their articles
Our Climate Change – impacts of climate change
Text What a Waste – our future planet
Our Planet, Our Future – a changing world
Ø Warm-up
Ø Watch a video on How Climate Change Affect Us
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSC9-WR6_2A
Activity
Ø Independent reading & whole group discussion
Ø Examine magazine design
Ø Create magazine

Assessment Ø Role play on impact of climate change - to demonstrate understanding

Today’s lesson will focus on chapter 6: “Critical Literacy: Reading as Text Analyst”.

Critical reading is important for 21st-century students. Teachers should inform students that

they don’t read for nothing. While reading, they also need to think about the content critically.

Text analyst plays an essential role in the information age and reading includes question texts

and examine author motives (Wilson, 2002). By examining authors’ motives, students learn

writers’ values as well as how the values impact the ways authors shape their texts.

Yesterday students wrote an informational report. I will begin today’s lesson by asking

students “Why do you decide to write the report this way?”. Students will share their ideas

and opinion with the class. This informal conversation helps students to analyze themselves

as writers, and helps them think critically about the way they make decisions in the writing
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process. Moreover, this conversation serves as a transition to help students to delve into

today’s lesson.

Then I will let students watch a video on “How Climate Affect Us.” This video is a great

material to guide students in making critical analyses. According to Janks (2010), he claims

“multiliteracies approach to literacy ask us to re-examine meaning-making in an age of visual

sign” (p.50). While 21st-century literacy focuses on written texts, it also emphasizes the

meaning from visual signs. Therefore, I think it is important to help students master the skills

in examining digital literacy. Since this video contains animation, I think students will be

interested in it and they will pay more attention to this part. Some of the core questions I want

to explore with students will include:

a. the motive in this video

b. why the creator chooses to use these images we see in the video? How are these images

related to the impact of climate change?

c. why does the creator illustrate the issue in such sequence?

d. how is the language used in this video and how the language shape our understanding on

the impact of climate change?

e. how the pictures and the animation coincide or differs with the texts in subtitle? Why?

I will scaffold students to approach the interpretation of these questions. I will let students

discuss questions in a group of two. They will jot down their ideas on a piece of paper. Then I

will listen to their ideas, and offer some alternative responses to help them to see some of the

ways we interpret visual signs. Based on alternative responses, students will go back to their

group and re-examine the elements in this video and come with different thoughts. As they
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discuss, I will circulate them to listen to their ideas and offer suggestions. In this way, I can

support individuals’ learning.

After being equipped with some experience by examining the video, students will read

Our Planet, Our Future from pp.8-14. independently. This is a youth magazine, and this section

talks about the impact of climate change on our daily life and the ecosystem. Since we have

examined the visual sign and learned about elements in the factual report, I think it is a great

opportunity for students to delve into analyzing magazines. Students will read critically on this

section and think about the questions related to the author and the content. I will allow enough

time for students to work on this part. In a group of 5, students will put their questions on the

posters. They can use either drawing or writing to demonstrate their questions. Some questions

I anticipate students raise like:

a. how the author uses language to shape our understanding?

b. what is the author’s motive for writing this?

c. what does the author hope her readers to gain from writing this?

d. how the author’s language choice affects our understanding?

e. how the images support the texts?

f. why are the sections designed this way?

After they create the questions, each group will share their questions in front of the class.

The questions will be valued in our class and there are no right or wrong questions. They will

teach the class the process of analyzing this magazine. The process might include what aspects

they analyze, which part they begin to analyze, and some issues that stand out to them during

the analysis process. After the presentation, each group will answer the questions from the
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other group. In this process, students can see strategies their peers use to analyze the author’s

decision and value in creating this magazine. Also, by answering each other’s questions,

students open their minds to innovative ideas and possibilities. Therefore, while learning in

class, students also know and understand one another much better by developing social

awareness in classroom societies (Wilson, 2002). I will encourage students to see if they have

additional questions, so I can support students’ learning immediately.

Then the whole class will create a magazine to illustrate impacts of climate change. I will

encourage them to think about the impacts from various perspectives such as humans, animals,

plants, the ocean, and the atmosphere. I will circulate around to provide students with the

resources that they need. Also, I will provide other materials that students need in drawing,

painting, and making artworks for this magazine. If students need to try out a presentation, I

will be their audience and offer suggestions. Cooperation with each other is also important in

developing social awareness. The aim of creating the magazine is to help the student better

understand how we as writers decide in our writing as well as how our values shape the

language we use in the writing. As Wilson (2002) points out, “when children read critically,

they can be encouraged to take action and respond to texts by writing critically” (p.144). In this

activity, I want to see how students construct their understanding of the world.

For the last part of today’s class, students will participate in a role-play activity. Thus,

students will not sit rigidly at their desks. The body movements can arouse their interest and

motivate their learning (Vasquez, 2014). Roleplay activity does not assess students in the same

way as standard tests and writing essays do, so it provides students with a great opportunity to

develop creativity and let students demonstrate their understanding in a relaxed and flexible
 26

way. Students could choose the characters from a large range such as farmer, rabbit, tree, and

rain, etc. Students will be acting and conducting meaningful conversations to demonstrate their

understanding of today’s topic.

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Day 5

Focus Ch. 8 The Reading – Writing Connection

Students will understand:

Ø Reading informs writing
Objective Ø Reading nourishes writing
Ø Reading a variety of texts help us to examine and employ a variety of
strategies to make writing interesting
Ø Our Planet, Our Future
Texts
Ø The Magic School Bus

Ø Read aloud
Activities Ø Discuss strategies and elements make writing interesting
Ø Creative writing

Assessment Ø Creative writing demonstration

For today’s class, I will focus on Ch. 8 The Reading-Writing Connection. I want students

to understand that what they read informs and nourishes what they write. Moreover, through

the course of study, I hope students recognize reading and writing are inextricably intertwined.

Also, I want to help students to connect the way they read to the way they write. I hope students

can read and write with pleasure (Wilson, 2002). In addition, I want my students to learn

strategies that make writing more interesting.

Students will begin today’s lesson by reading aloud The Magic School Bus pp. 26-33 (the

part on Fighting Climate Change). This story will introduce students to narrative writing. I will

read aloud with students together. During the first read-aloud session, I will explore today’s

topic with students together. We will learn some of the things we could do to fight against

climate change. Then we will talk about the strategies that the reading suggests saving our

planet. Students will connect with their life experience to discuss things they observe that

negatively impact our climate, and what we can do to make a change for our planet. Each
 28

student will share with the class one way they think effective to save energy, reduce pollution,

and use alternative energy from the reading. The reason to have students connect life

experience with reading is that educators need to be more culturally responsive (Ghiso et al.,

2019). When students bring knowledge from their culture and life experience to class, they

could better understand class content and bring an enriched conversation to our classroom.

After the discussion, students will re-read the story silently. This time, I will ask them to

pay attention to the genre, dialogue between characters, narration, artifacts, and images in the

reading as well as how the author uses these elements to make the texts attractive to us. They

will read with these questions in mind. As Wilson (2002) points out, whenever writers begin

to write, they “call upon the knowledge that the reading of other texts has stored in their

linguistic pools” (p.174). This is a change for students to explore the author’s linguistic

characteristic. Students will delve into this new writing genre, and I will use this reading to

inform and guide students in today’s creative writing. Therefore, after silent reading, students

will work in a group of 5 to fill out a chart:

Characters What sort of characters? (E.g.: Boys; Girls; Smart; Incisive, etc.)

Ways these characters speak to each other

Dialogue
E.g., formal, or informal conversation / exciting or boring speech
What kind of images are being used in the reading?
Images
E.g.: cartoons, real-life photos, imaginative images, etc.
In what ways does the texts arouse our interest in reading it?
Texts How does the author use characters’ speech and thoughts to influence our
understanding?
Students will discuss in small groups and fill out this chart together. I will listen to students’

discussions and offering suggestions and guiding questions to help them analyze this new

writing genre. The purpose of analyzing the writing style in this reading is to help students

understand authors use different strategies to express meaning. Each group will present their
 29

chart with the class, and they will talk about the elements that are identified in each row in the

chart. Then they will talk about how these elements attract them to the reading. After each

group’s presentation, there will be a Q&A session. This session is for the presentation group to

ask questions that they are unclear about the writing elements in the reading. Another group

will help the presentation group to answer these questions. I will also help them to deal with

writing techniques in this reading. After the question session, the two groups will compare the

similarity and differences in their chart. Finally, students will integrate each group’s chart

response and put the identified elements on one poster. I will hang it on our classroom wall to

remind us of the writing strategies.

In the next session, I will read the story of Fighting Climate Change again to the class.

Since this story tells readers some surprising things about alternative energy as the “magic”

school bus travels around the world, I want students to identify high and low points in this story.

While I’m reading, students will listen carefully and identify high and low points. When

students think that the story becomes more interesting and exciting, they could stand up. If they

think the story is less interesting, they could sit down. In this process, students develop an

awareness of how the story hooks them and keeps them reading toward the end. This experience

nourishes and helps students to build skills they need in narrative writing (Wilson, 2002). Then

students will read Our Planet, Our Future from pp.26-27. This reading section informs students

about our actions toward fighting against climate change and reminds students of elements in

factual texts. Since we have discussed the elements in factual texts, students will use this

knowledge to compare with the narrative story we read for today. In groups 3 or 4, they will

discuss the differences between these two genres and write the differences on the whiteboard.
 30

This activity aims to help students learn how different texts are written. By comparing, it will

also reinforce strategies in narrative writing to students.

In our last session, all students (including me) will work on creative writing. One goal in

this activity is to help students build on writing skills, and another goal is to make students

critically focus on issues in their community and neighbors (Ghiso et al., 2019). There are four

roles: scientist, government officer, farmer, and garden worker. One or two students will

choose a character. Imagine they are the characters and think about how they fight against

climate change and suggestions they may offer on this topic. Students will also think about if

they meet each other in real life with their roles, what kind of conversation will they have. We

will use the strategy learned from narrative writing to create an advocacy poster for fighting

climate change. Students will think about what images and pictures they will paint to attract

readers and how they use titles and texts to hook readers. I will support students by providing

sources they need and offer my suggestions on how to structure the writing and texts to make

our content interesting. I will also listen to students’ ideas and encourage them to think

creatively. Moreover, I will also help them develop editing skills because writing involves both

formulations of ideas and the application of editorial skills (Wilson, 2002). Therefore,

whenever students write something, I will have them to re-read what they write. Then ask them

to see if that makes sense. We will also revise the sentence structure and talk about anything

we need to add on. As a result, I can help students to extend their existing understanding and

acquire new insights (Wilson, 2002).

 31

Week 3:

In week three, we will re-read texts on the poster from week 2 day 5 and edit them together.

This time, we will look at spelling, punctuation, and word choice to refine our content. We will

also analyze the pictures we drew and discuss whether the pictures could hook readers to read.

We will finalize our poster to make sure its good shape. Then I will print out 11 pieces of our

poster and distribute them to students. Thus, each student will have one. We will put our posters

on the program’s bulletin board to demonstrate our work. Then, in a group of 5, students will

take our posters to advocate for actions toward fighting climate change and saving our planet

in their communities. They will also share with their families, communities, and neighbors

what they learned on climate change as well as why there is a need to save our planet. One

student in each group will help the whole group to record the experiences, either in video or

photo format. When students come back to class, I will help them to organize and integrate

videos and photos to make a digital movie for the whole class. Then we will post this video on

the program’s website to celebrate students’ experience and hard work.

 32

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