Writing Persuasively About Climate Change
Lesson Plans
Grades9, 10, 11, 12Civics, English Language Arts
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Provided by ClimateScience
What it is
- In this activity, students participate in civic engagement by writing a letter to their country's government encouraging them to take action against climate change.
- Students will learn about crafting solid arguments and writing persuasively.
Teaching tips
Positives
- The teacher guide and student handout are provided, making it easy to implement.
- This lesson is a great way to get students involved in climate action.
Additional Prerequisites
- Teachers should make sure to review the teacher guide prior to using this lesson with students.
- The guides can be downloaded and used offline.
Differentiation
- This lesson is ideal for ELA classes to practice letter writing, persuasive writing, and/or formal writing.
- Teachers can collect the letters and send them to the appropriate bodies of government.
- For younger students, consider using this similar resource from ClimateScience.
- Students can swap their letters for peer-to-peer marking against the checklist before editing and polishing their final drafts.
- Students can present their letters as speeches to the class.
- Students can investigate Project Drawdown's Table of Solutions for potential ideas to include in their letters.
From the scientist review
This activity has students draft and share letters to government officials persuading them to take action with regard to some climate or environmental topic of the student's choosing. It introduces Aristotle's pillars of persuasion (ethos, logos, pathos) and recommends that students share and perform a simple "peer review" of their letters. This activity is recommended for teaching.
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Hosted on climatescience.org
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