Developing Connections between Social Issues and Climate Change Impacts

Description

Because so many of the students’ rough drafts consisted of extreme weather, I wanted them to consider, more critically, the nuances of how climate change affects their lives in ways they might not expect. I asked students to reflect on a social issue currently impacting their community and then post to a  discussion board through the Google Classroom. Here, you see students considering how inflationary price increases may limit individuals’ ability to pursue climate action. I then asked students to make connections between the various social issues discussed and climate change using threaded posts. These threads revealed a deeper and more varied understanding of the affects and impacts of climate change in comparison to the initial MCS rough drafts. This work will finally be used to help students revise their climate stories and make their writing more reflective of authentic experiences, whether of themselves, their families, or their wider community. In the future, I would choose to conduct this activity earlier in the unit and place it alongside discussions of intersectional environmentalism to engage students thinking about climate change in a way that is based around both identity and community.