Lesson Title: Adaptation: Climate Change Impact Lesson # Date:

Name: Aaron Livingstone Subject ELA Grade(s): 10/11/12

Rationale
The final Adaptation lesson deals with climate adaptation. Students are often faced with closed questions about
limited texts or situations. Instead, in this lesson, students will delimit a universal problem by choosing a
geographical or political area for which to find solutions. They will use the internet to practice information
gathering from a variety of sources including news, scientific reports (such as the latest IPCC report), and
encyclopedic articles to accurately describe the unique problems facing a certain place. They will then research
what other places with similar problems are doing about them, and determine whether or not these solutions are
viable in the place they have chosen. Teacher and students will discuss expectations and the research process
beforehand so that students do not get overwhelmed, and instead practice focused, intentional internet research.
Students have time at the end of class to reflect on what worked, and didnt, during this period.
This lesson extends into next class, which ends with some unit review and students deciding what they want to
do for a final project.

Curriculum Connections

Big Ideas
Questioning what we hear, read, and view contributes to our ability to be educated and engaged citizens.

note: the draft Composition curriculum lists several possible areas of focus, among them are writing for specific
professional audiences and specific academic disciplines, and how to cite sources, consider the credibility of
evidence, and evaluate the quality and reliability of the source, both of which encompass this activity much more
completely than do the Big Ideas of ELA.

Curricular Competency
Apply appropriate strategies in a variety of contexts to comprehend written, oral, visual, and multimodal texts, to
guide inquiry, and to extend thinking
Evaluate the relevance, accuracy, and reliability of texts

Content
Metacognitive strategies
Reading strategies

Core Competency
Critical thinking: students are given a limited amount of time to collect information from the internet. They then
reflect on strategies for research success.

Learning Intentions Activity Assessment

What are some of the effects of Internet research First step in research
climate change?

What are some strategies that local Internet research Second step in research
or regional governments and (completion)
citizens are using to adapt?

What are some good strategies for Reflection work Completion (handed in)
effective research? What doesnt
work?

A nuanced understanding of Class discussion of research participation

appropriate sources for different sources
situations

Prerequisite Concepts and Skill

Students should have a solid grounding in internet research by now. This lesson does not cover the basics, but
instead aims to make reflection a part of the research process so that students are able to improve every time
they do it.
By the same token, students should know by now that some sources are reliable and some arent. This lesson
takes them beyond that dichotomy to show that ones audience, task, and schedule also affect the
appropriateness of source selection.
Materials and Resources with References/Sources

For Teacher For Students

Computer x 30 students (cellphones will not do for A word program for taking research notes
this activity)

A projector or handout x 30 students with clear

instructions for the research activity

A spreadsheet with class names on it and main

activities on the other

Differentiated Instruction (DI)

This class is already significantly differentiated because of the choice of three different unit projects, each
stemming from a different lesson. The idea is that students should feel they are able to bring their strengths to
bare and put their best foot forward for this concept unit.
A student who wishes to research the old-fashioned way, in the library, should be given leave to do so. Their
sources should still be recorded so the teacher can look them up.

Organizational/Management Strategies
There is a lot of organization necessary for this class. First, the teacher needs to come prepared with several
examples of sources that will appeal (or not) to the four stakeholder groups. Second, all the free writes students
have made for the unit need to be distributed and collected again, and the teacher needs to clearly explain the
purpose of these notes. Third, the teacher needs to explain clearly, and then be ready to assist with, organizing
the class into the groups they were in when they carried out the activity which they have now chosen to develop
into a unit project.

Lesson Activities

Teacher Activities Student Activities pacing

Introduction Introduction
Ideally, meet in the computer lab to save time

Check in: anyone done any study of climate Knowledge sharing: the class may have
change in science classes? enough prior knowledge to skip the first step 5-15
in the research: effects of climate change.

Body Body
Today we are going to research climate
change as it relates to a place of your
choosing. We only have one class to do this,
so we need to work quickly and effectively.

Research question is: Ho is [place x] adapting

to climate change?
Class discussion: teacher scribes Class discussion: make a to-do list for how to
come up with an answer to the research 10
question.
(strategize: team up? Divide and conquer?
Where do we start?)

Teacher is circulating, assisting with ideas and internet research 40

knowledge. Strategy should be left up to the
students: teacher should only prompt with
questions.

closure closure
Free write free write: describe your research strategy.
What about it did you like, and what about it 10
would you change? Did you get as much
done as you wanted?

Display a drop-box or email, request All sources (in URL format) should be listed
submission of sources in a document and sent to the teacher for 10
review

Teacher homework: look through all (or many)

of the sources used by students. curate some class
exemplary and dubious sources (and end
everything in between)
Introduction Introduction
Yes? (could do more like it)
Check-in: did we like the format of last class? No? (why not?)

Body Body
Here are some situations for which you might Roughly divide the class into four groups
use internet resources (stakeholders)
Group 1 = government staffer preparing a
Here are some sources you guys used report for city council
Group 2 = journalist preparing an opinion
Would these be appropriate for use by your piece for the paper
groups stakeholder? Group 3 = academic researcher writing a
(things to look for include: veracity, level of paper
technicality, specificity, ideological bias, your Group 4 = person at a party trying to win a 20-30
own deadline, peer reviewed) bet

free write Free write: How will (or has) climate

adaptation change(d) the community or place
you researched? How will people and the 10
environment be affected?

Closure
hand out all other free writes that have been
written during this unit (including from today).
Introduce the unit test: choice of three essay
questions.
Collect highlighted notes
Closure
Students highlight concepts that they like,
that are important ideas to them, or otherwise
might be helpful, and add notes now that they 20
have thought more about the many sides of
adaptation. These highlighted notes will be
their only aids during the unit exam essay.

Project (or hand around) a class spreadsheet
with the three main unit assignments on it:
Storyboard/script (lesson 1)
Movie to play Adaption (lesson 3)
Climate Research project (Lesson 4)
students will now choose which project they
want to pursue as their unit project. They will
have next class to work on it. If they choose
to work more on the storyboard/script from rest of
lesson 1, they must decide that as a group, class
etc.

Collect spreadsheet. Follow up the next day

and make sure that everyone knows what they
are doing with whom.

Cross Curricular opportunities:

Analogous to the lesson on theatre, students who have learned about climate change in class will have a head
start on this one. There is plenty of opportunity to work with a science teacher on how to delve deeper into the
science of climate change, or use this research as a jumping off point for a science inquiry project. Keep apprised
of where students are in their science curricula or approach another teacher about collaborating.