Curriculum / ELA / 8th Grade / Unit 5: Facing Calamity: Climate Change Facts and Fictions / Lesson 19
ELA
Unit 5
8th Grade
Lesson 19 of 23
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Research the potential local impacts of climate change in preparation for writing a letter to a congressperson.
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Tasks that represents the peak thinking of the lesson - mastery will indicate whether or not objective was achieved.
Conduct research about the risks of climate change in your area in preparation for completing the following task:
Earlier in this unit, you researched the potential impacts of climate change on your area and wrote a scene of climate fiction based on what you learned. One purpose of climate fiction is to motivate readers to take urgent action to stop climate collapse.
While individual citizens can and should make changes in their lives to decrease their environmental footprint, far-reaching legislative action is essential if we are to avert a catastrophe. More than any individual citizens, our elected officials in Washington, DC are uniquely positioned to save our planet.
Your task is to write a letter to one of your congresspeople (one of your two senators or your representative) to send along with your climate fiction scene. In this letter, you will explain why you think they should take immediate action to combat climate change and provide specific evidence for how climate change will impact your region of the country.
Your letter must:
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Reading and/or task to be completed at home in preparation for the next lesson.
Complete any research not finished in class.
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W.8.1 — Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
W.8.7 — Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
W.8.8 — Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
W.8.9 — Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Standards that are practiced daily but are not priority standards of the unit
L.8.6 — Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
RI.8.2 — Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text.
RI.8.10 — By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 6—8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
SL.8.1 — Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
SL.8.6 — Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
W.8.4 — Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
W.8.5 — With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.
W.8.6 — Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
W.8.10 — Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Next
Outline a letter urging a congressperson to take action to stop climate change.
Explain how specific words, phrases, and structural choices develop tone in Greta Thunberg’s speeches, and how tone impacts meaning.
Standards
RI.8.4
Identify the key ideas Gore uses to support his claims about climate change and assess whether the evidence he provides is relevant and sufficient.
RI.8.8
Identify a writer’s claims in a text and explain how they support those claims, as well as how they respond to conflicting viewpoints.
RI.8.6RI.8.8
Infer the meaning of unknown words using context clues, use reference materials to verify the meaning of words, and explain how word choice develops meaning in an informational article.
L.8.4L.8.4.aL.8.4.cL.8.4.dRI.8.4
Explain how Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner specific words and phrases develop tone in a poem and how tone impacts meaning.
RL.8.4
Write objective summaries and determine central ideas in informational articles.
RI.8.2
Identify claims made in an informational article and assess the relevance and sufficiency of evidence provided to support those claims.
Explain how writer Abby Geni uses imagery and figurative language to establish mood and meaning in a short story.
RL.8.2RL.8.4
Determine a theme in the short story, "Notes from a Bottle" and explain how the author develops it; identify literary allusions and explain how they help to build meaning in a text.
RL.8.2RL.8.9
Research the possible impacts of climate change and begin to brainstorm aspects of setting for climate fiction narratives.
W.8.3W.8.8W.8.9
Draft two paragraphs vividly describing the setting of your climate fiction narrative.
W.8.3W.8.3.aW.8.3.bW.8.3.d
Draft a short climate fiction scene.
W.8.3W.8.3.a
L.8.2L.8.2.aW.8.3W.8.5
Compare and contrast the central arguments of two articles about climate change, and explain how one author acknowledges and responds to viewpoints that differ from their own.
RI.8.6RI.8.9
Determine the central idea of sections of An Inconvenient Sequel and synthesize information in a short presentation that educates classmates.
RI.8.2SL.8.4
Synthesize information about a young climate activist and create a short presentation that educates classmates.
Delineate arguments made about climate change and assess whether the evidence provided is relevant and sufficient.
Engage in a Socratic Seminar with peers, responding directly to others by rephrasing and delineating arguments, determining the strength of evidence, and posing clarifying questions.
SL.8.1SL.8.1.dSL.8.3SL.8.4
W.8.1W.8.7W.8.8W.8.9
W.8.1W.8.1.aW.8.1.bW.8.5
Draft a letter urging a congressperson to take action to stop climate change.
W.8.1W.8.1.aW.8.1.bW.8.1.cW.8.1.e
L.8.3L.8.3.aW.8.1W.8.1.d
2 days
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