This reading comprehension resource explains how empowering women can have positive impacts on the climate through education, family planning, and equity in opportunities and government.
This resource includes a teacher's guide and printable reading passages with corresponding comprehension questions.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The reading passage included in this resource is very informative, and the comprehension questions do a good job of assessing students' understanding of the material.
The included graphs and charts are beneficial for understanding and will be helpful for visual learners.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should be able to read bar and dot graphs.
Consider distributing the passage and questions digitally to conserve paper.
The article discusses the use of contraceptives for family planning.
The first link in the Sources section does not work.
Differentiation
This resource would work well in a social studies classroom for discussing gender equality, the role of government in establishing policies to protect and empower women, or women in government.
Before reading, have a class brainstorm around the role of women in climate change and how gender equity impacts climate change. Teachers can ask students the following questions:
What were your thoughts on this topic before reading the article?
How did your ideas and opinions change after reading the article?
What did you find surprising?
As a reading comprehension activity, this article provides good examples of using charts and graphs to deepen understanding. This is important nonfiction reading work and can be taught by stopping to read, think about, and analyze the graphs included in the reading passage.
Scientist Notes
This resource is suitable to deepen students' insights on the role women can play in tackling climate change if they are given equal opportunities in education, land ownership, and political participation. The resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Civics
D2.Civ.1.6-8 Distinguish the powers and responsibilities of citizens, political parties, interest groups, and the media in a variety of governmental and nongovernmental contexts.
D2.Civ.12.6-8 Assess specific rules and laws (both actual and proposed) as means of addressing public problems.
D2.Civ.10.9-12 Analyze the impact and the appropriate roles of personal interests and perspectives on the application of civic virtues, democratic principles, constitutional rights, and human rights.
D2.Civ.13.9-12 Evaluate public policies in terms of intended and unintended outcomes, and related consequences.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Informational Text (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.3 Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.6 Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text.
