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.
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.
Scientist Notes
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.
Standards
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Civics
D2.Civ.12.9-12 Analyze how people use and challenge local, state, national, and international laws to address a variety of public issues.
D2.Civ.5.9-12 Evaluate citizens' and institutions' effectiveness in addressing social and political problems at the local, state, tribal, national, and/or international level.
Dimension 4: Taking Informed Action
D4.7.9-12 Assess options for individual and collective action to address local, regional, and global problems by engaging in self-reflection, strategy identification, and complex causal reasoning.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Writing (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.1 Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.1 Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
