Climate/Future Teaching & Learning Sequence

This module explores action and activism in the representations of the media.

 

We provide you with some relevant news articles to explore (collected from the middle six months of 2019). You may prefer to use ones you have collected that might be relevant to local issues or are more recent. The accuracy of the reported facts will be considered as well as the communication tools used to convey messaging.

 

Curriculum links

1: English – Literacy

• Text in context

• Interacting with others

• Interpreting, analysing, evaluating

2: The General Capabilities of:

• Personal and Social Capability

• Ethical Understandings

• Critical and Creative Thinking

 

Teaching and Learning Sequence

Adapt these activities and their order to suit your specific situation.

 

1: Media reports the truth (or does it?).

Ask students to explore a range of news print (web based) media articles.

• Note what is reported and consider what is NOT reported.

• How is an event or idea made into a news-worthy event or idea.  What happens to the truth?  Is it extended, or are certain aspects highlighted? What does “news-worthy” mean?

• What is common between these articles? What is different and stands out?
   

What is the truth? How do we know it is true? Can we each have our own sense of what is true? (Think Chinese Whispers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers  – play a quick game to check how the truth can be distorted.)

 

Here’s a collection of news media articles about climate action. Ask students to find others.

1. https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-weather-forecast-france-heatwave-global-warming-temperature-a9033201.html

2. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/new-liberal-mp-wants-both-sides-of-climate-change-debate-taught-at-schools

3. https://www.facebook.com/100004127083346/posts/1333442340136656/

4. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/08/05/bbc-all-the-cute-animals-will-die-from-global-warming/

5. https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/why-school-climate-strikers-are-adding-demand-just-transition-and-job-creation

6. https://www.newstatesman.com/world/2019/08/be-water-seven-tactics-are-winning-hong-kongs-democracy-revolution?fbclid=IwAR1v2B1PASve4aGjK_jmqEItSf0tw49SVej5QKxH6UTPbTdEi2_r1ris_Jk

7. http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/articles/entry/despairing-about-climate-crisis?fbclid=IwAR2YmfSmGayH5_tEX8NhNyuJGBaW17W4LzxzTaATYy5gJtW5Z_brX1CEjok

8. https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/living-in-the-climate-lag?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Eureka%20Street%20Daily%20-%20Tuesday%2023%20July%202019&utm_content=Eureka%20Street%20Daily%20-%20Tuesday%2023%20July%202019+CID_3309e90c1c65fc30c0532c2825ff35cf&utm_source=Jescom%20Newsletters&utm_term=Living%20in%20the%20climate%20lag

9. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/03/australias-climate-stance-is-inflicting-criminal-damage-on-humanity?CMP=share_btn_fb

10. https://independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/why-its-a-climate-emergency,12976

11. https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-07-27/climate-change-denial-zombies-killed/11291724

12. https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/climate-catastrophe-and-the-irrational-race?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Eureka Street Weekly - Friday 9 August 2019&utm_content=Eureka Street Weekly - Friday 9 August 2019+CID_93c4bef7d65cb9f785755909312a8e7f&utm_source=Jescom Newsletters&utm_term=Climate catastrophe and the irrational race

13. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/08/how-climates-impact-on-land-threatens-civilisation-and-how-to-fix-it

 

2: Different forms of media encourage us to understand – differently.

Each different form of media facilitates different levels of engagement. Explore the experience (and the issues) with students.

 

Spend time investigating how different forms of media represent:

1. the youth climate action from 2019

2. Sustainability more broadly

 

Students could consider:

• What topics were suited to what media?

• What ‘evidence’ was used in the media representation of the issues?

• How did each specific media form support information to be conveyed?

• How were your emotions manipulated about the issues and did this vary with each form of media?

 

A: School strike for climate - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“The School strike for climate (also known variously as Fridays for Future, Youth for Climate and Youth Strike 4 Climate) is an international movement of school students who are deciding not to attend classes and instead take part in demonstrations to demand action to prevent further global warming and climate change. Publicity and widespread organising began when the climate activist Greta Thunberg staged an action in August 2018 outside the Swedish Riksdag (parliament), holding a sign that read "Skolstrejk för klimatet" ("School strike for the climate").”

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And Channel 9 did a report (60 minutes) that can be seen in two parts:

Click to see Part 1 

Click to see Part 2

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B: Sustainability more broadly.

If we broaden our interest to more than just the School Strike 4 Climate Action, we can explore additional media use. Focus the discussion back to the different forms of media and expand the discussion with these examples of environmental messaging.

 

1. Click to view this interesting TEDx Talk.
Charlie has a lot of interesting stuff to say and he has thought carefully about how he can best say it - with the greatest impact.

 

2. Charlie has been involved recently with the Formidable Vegetables! Click this link to check them out!!

 

3. And finally - there is a new movie that is challenging our ideas about what we are doing in our current living practices. 

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Find out more about 2040 here and check out this site too.

 

 

3: Pull it all together and checking in on influence.

As a group, consider the common elements required for communicating to bring about change. What is needed for a message to be heard, understood, disruptive but not dismissed?  Use the Spheres of Influence representation below to map the media examples and indicate how the influence is distributed to influence social change.

 

Notes for Teachers

1. Read the relevant outcomes from English and general capabilities.  Know what is being asked of your students through this learning engagement/opportunity.  How will you assess their achievement of the outcomes?

2. Make time to explore the resources you will be using in the module.

3. Take time to explore the media articles presented- are they ok for your students?

4. How do you prefer to take in media? Be aware of your biases as they may be different to your students’. The point of this module is to explore communication vehicles/media and to have students reflect on how different strategies communicate different aspects of the story to persuade.

5. This module is also designed to have student question and critically think about the accuracy of the representations of ideas in the media. Are media reliable and how do we need to read news stories to be a savvy users media?

6. Later, in module 7, students will use this understanding to develop their own communication tools.