SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students evaluate three slogans on climate awareness and advocacy and create their own artistic slogans with four specific types of parallel structure.

SCIENTIST NOTES: The lesson enables students to understand the intrinsic value of slogans in climate and social justice advocacy. Students would also practice how to use artistic slogans to communicate climate change impact to diverse audiences and policymakers in order to inform better decision-making and drive climate action. All materials have been carefully reviewed, and this lesson is recommended for teaching.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson can be used in all levels of English and art classes.
-Art teachers can use this lesson in any unit and incorporate other art components.
-Students are given voice and choice in this lesson as they learn to manipulate language to achieve different outcomes.
-This lesson can be used as an introduction to climate change and overall climate awareness.
-This lesson can be added to a science lesson evaluating evidence for climate change or a communications or business lesson on marketing.
-This lesson can be used to discuss climate justice in social studies.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Students should have some understanding of basic grammar and parallel structure.
-Students should have an understanding of slogans and their purpose.
-Students should have access to computers or art materials in order to create the final version of their parallel structure slogan.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-Students’ use of language and vocabulary can be simple or complex in order to fit the needs of the class.
-Teachers can simplify the lesson by focusing on only one or two forms of parallel structure.
-Art teachers can have students design two different visual pieces to go with the same slogan, then compare and contrast the effects of the different artistic elements on the overall message.
-Additional scaffolding for AP English classes can include a discussion on the purposes and effects of each specific form of parallel structure as well as an analysis of parallel structures in literature.
-Teachers can connect the parallel structure skills in this lesson to their current reading material or curriculum. For example, students can identify forms of parallel structure in previously assigned class literature or nonfiction readings.
-Teachers can extend this lesson into various writing activities for students to practice expository, analytical, descriptive, or narrative writing with different forms of parallel structure.

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students learn the impacts of climate change on birds, explore the effectiveness of public art on climate change awareness, and synthesize informational texts into a persuasive or argumentative essay.

SCIENTIST NOTES: Bird species are suffering and facing extinction as a result of rising temperatures. Several species are slowly losing their range and changing shape and size. This lesson also establishes the possibility that a gradual rise in temperature could affect human survival, but it also gives students the opportunity to brainstorm and use their artistic talents to convey conservation strategies that would safeguard local wildlife and ecologically delicate species. This lesson is suggested for use in the classroom since the video, pictures, and materials are from reliable sources.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson can be used to teach students close reading or note-taking strategies.
-This lesson can be used to focus on elements of persuasive or argumentative writing techniques.
-This lesson can be easily adapted for writing workshops and the peer editing process in a multi-day or mini-unit.
-This lesson can be done in the Spring or Fall when students can also observe local birds outside, or during state testing days as an independent or partner project.
-This lesson can be used as a stand-alone lesson or as a lesson in a unit on non-fiction, birds, geography, art, or research.
-Students are given voice and choice and can work independently or in pairs.
-Students explore various media and guide their own learning with options for breadth and depth.
-Students learn about local bird species in their neighborhood and region.
-Students have two different options to create their own artistic responses.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Teachers should be aware that the Audubon organization is named after John James Audubon and references his “complicated history” as an unrepentant slave owner and strong advocate for slavery. Students will explore this in the lesson, but teachers may want to preview the articles prior to the lesson.
-Students should have some basic understanding of citing sources and referencing multiple resources in writing.
-Students should have a basic understanding of the elements of persuasive or argumentative writing.
-Students should have access to devices with a strong internet connection.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-Teachers can extend the research and writing portions of the lesson, using them to teach specific elements in persuasive or argumentative writing.
-Teachers can provide paragraph or essay structures, graphic organizers, brainstorming, or outline templates for students to use.
-Teachers can read one article in the Inspire section with the class as an anchor text or to model reading and note-taking strategies.
-English teachers can choose to make the artistic element a separate class period, an extension, or extra credit activity.
-Teachers can assign other articles from the Audubon website for extension activities.
-Social studies, civics, and economics classes can extend this topic to discuss social justice, socioeconomic status, and cultural impacts. Students can research and discuss how other activists’ “complicated” backgrounds have impacted their messaging.
-Music classes can listen to bird songs of birds from the Audubon website and compare the musicality and tonality of different bird songs in the same region.

This documentary film takes the viewer on a virtual trip around the world to visit communities in different countries (Asia, Africa, Central America, Australia) taking action on climate change. The documentary weaves together nine inspiring stories, showing that action on climate change is creating jobs, improving lives and turning dreams of a better future into reality.

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students learn about deforestation and climate change and respond by writing an ode or an elegy.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson empowers students to understand what deforestation entails and how they can write poems to express their feelings of grief, respect, emotion, and valor in combating deforestation in their community. All materials used in the lesson have been verified and are suitable for teaching. In this light, this lesson is credible and recommended for the classroom.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson can be used as a standalone or as a lesson in a poetry unit.
-Students are given voice and choice.
-Students create their own poetic response to a real-world challenge.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Students should have some basic understanding of poetry.
-Students should have a basic understanding of deforestation and its connection to climate change.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-This lesson is easily adaptable to Advanced Placement or honors level classes by including other literary and language elements in the poems such as juxtaposition, oxymoron, consonance, assonance, enjambment, alliteration, and personification.
-Students can write each stanza in a different meter or rhyme. Examples include iambic pentameter or ABBA rhyme scheme.
-Teachers can split the lesson in two and focus on an ode in the first lesson and an elegy in the second.
-Students can write both an ode and an elegy and compare the differences in writing, tone, and overall effect.
-Social studies, civics, and economics classes can extend this topic to social justice, socioeconomic class, and cultural impacts of deforestation within each specific region.
-Student poems can be shared outside of the classroom in the school newspaper or a community newsletter, on a class or teacher website, on school display boards, or in extracurricular poetry or environmental clubs.

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students explore three different personal perspectives on the effects of climate change, evaluate arguments and reasoning, and advocate for climate change through a personal call to action.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson inspires students to take an active role in combating climate change while also teaching them about various climate change impacts. The initial video talks about climate change from three different angles and gives students various ideas of how they could act such as voting, education, and activism. It introduces the idea of environmental racism and justice. The three videos about New Jersey sea level rise are all accurate and informative. This resource is recommended for teaching.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson can be used in English, persuasive writing, and social studies.
-Students are given voice and choice in this lesson.
-Students become agents of change in their own communities.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Students should be familiar with the basics of climate change and potential effects to their own region.
-Students will be writing a call to action. The goal of a written call to action is to inspire others to perform a specific act with some urgency.
-Students should understand the basics of persuasive argumentation and using personal connections as evidence and reasoning to support an argument.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-Calls to action can be expressed in different platforms. Students can explore adapting their calls to action in different platforms: creating a video, choosing specific social media outlets, and incorporating supporting artwork. Make sure to follow all school rules and monitor students’ progress if you allow this in the classroom.
-You may allow students to brainstorm and pursue other methods of communication not listed.
-Students can evaluate the effectiveness of using different platforms to make their calls to action.
-Students can present their calls to action to different audiences.

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students discuss three effective strategies for talking about climate change, then write and present a speech using the three strategies.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson encourages students to think about the words they use and how to effectively communicate their thoughts and opinions with others. The lesson walks students through the use of plain, obvious, and universal language that will create a vivid image in the listener’s mind. There is a discussion about the use of alternative words or phrases to convey a message that is more understandable and relatable. Finally, this lesson includes an example of how using personal experience will allow the audience to understand and comprehend material more readily. This lesson stimulates students' minds to think about how they speak and the words they use to relay information. This lesson is great for teaching the necessary skills of communication and is recommended for teaching.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson can be used in any English, science, or public speaking class.
-Students are given voice and choice in this lesson.
-Students learn to manipulate language to achieve specific outcomes.
-This can be a standalone lesson or it can be paired with any science lesson as a final activity.
-This lesson can be a short writing assignment or developed into a full essay.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Students should have some basic understanding of climate change concepts and vocabulary.
-The Inspire section of this lesson is listed as 45 minutes in length. This may take longer depending on how you facilitate student speeches.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-This lesson can be adapted to focus more specifically on the writing process, editing process, or public speaking.
-Teachers can focus on speech delivery and presentation skills such as eye contact, body language, tone of voice, etc.
-This lesson can be adapted to Advanced Placement or honors level classes by incorporating specific literary and language elements in the writing.
-Teachers can mandate students include specific strategies in persuasive elements of writing.
-Students can vote to select the best speech in the class.
-Students can deliver their speeches to outside groups for extra credit.