Facing Calamity: Climate Change Facts and Fictions

Students explore human nature by studying the climate crisis and its causes and impact, and the role of government, businesses, and individuals in finding solutions.

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ELA

Unit 5

8th Grade

Unit Summary


In this final 8th-grade unit, students will learn about one of the most urgent issues facing the planet today: climate change. While previous units have focused on historical events, this unit focuses students' attention on a crisis unfolding around them. While they will undoubtedly be familiar with the basic facts of climate change, this unit aims to provide students with some of the information and analytical tools needed to engage with this complex topic.

This unit on climate change draws on a diverse collection of texts that work together to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the issue from multiple perspectives. This unit strives to support student learning by examining three distinct vantage points: Environmental Impacts, Human Perspectives, and Global Impact and Action. Articles such as "Understanding Climate Change" and "What the new report on climate change expects from you" provide students with the scientific explanations behind climate change, helping to ground their learning in factual information and research. Works like "Climate change sets people on the move" and "The Marshall Islands Are Disappearing" illustrate the global human impacts of climate change, showing how vulnerable populations are already experiencing its effects. Additionally, pieces such as "Just 57 companies linked to 80% of greenhouse gas emissions" and "Survey finds that 60 firms are responsible for half of the world's plastic pollution" critically explore the role of corporations in driving environmental degradation. Personal perspectives, such as the poem "Dear Matafele Peinem," offer emotional and cultural insights into the devastating consequences of climate change. In contrast, climate fiction, or cli-fi, texts like "Half-Eaten Cities" and "Field Notes" encourage students to think creatively about potential future outcomes. 

Students will have the opportunity to use what they have learned about climate change's current and potential impacts—as well as the narrative writing skills they have developed throughout the year—to write their own cli-fi stories. They will conclude the unit by taking action and writing a persuasive letter to their elected officials, drawing on the texts they have studied throughout the unit.

Please Note: In January 2025, this unit and its lesson plans will received the enhancements outlined here.

In addition to the general enhancements, the updated unit will no longer require a physical copy of An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, which is out of print. The revised unit will not have a physical core text that needs to be purchased as a class set. The unit will be centered on a collection of short texts—including articles, essays, speeches—all links to online sources.

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Texts and Materials


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Core Materials

Assessment


The following assessments accompany Unit 5.

Content Assessment

The Content Assessment tests students' ability to read a "cold" or unfamiliar passage and answer multiple choice and short answer questions. Additionally, a longer writing prompt pushes students to synthesize unit content knowledge or unit essential questions in writing. The Content Assessment should be used as the primary assessment because it shows mastery of unit content knowledge and standards.

Vocabulary Assessment

The Vocabulary Assessment tests student's knowledge and usage of the unit's of text-based vocabulary.

Fluency Assessment

The Fluency Assessment measures students' ability to read a grade-level text with accuracy and prosody, at a proficient rate, with a reading passage drawn from one of the unit's core texts. Find guidance for using this assessment and supporting reading fluency in Teacher Tools.

Unit Prep


Intellectual Prep

Unit Launch

Before you teach this unit, unpack the texts, themes, and core standards through our guided intellectual preparation process. Each Unit Launch includes a series of short videos, targeted readings, and opportunities for action planning to ensure you're prepared to support every student.

Essential Questions

  • Who is responsible for causing the climate crisis and who is responsible for solving it?
  • What is the relationship between the climate crisis and social, economic, and political power? 
  • How do scientists and fiction writers imagine the future if we do—and do not—address climate change?

Enduring Understandings

  • People are already seeing the impacts of climate change today, and things will only get catastrophically worse if individuals and communities do not immediately address this crisis. 
  • People with less money and political power are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. 
  • The world's slow response to climate change can at least partially be linked to the actions of large corporations that have benefited financially from ignoring the crisis. 
  • There is a growing movement of activists and artists speaking out about climate change and the dangers we face by not urgently addressing it.

Vocabulary

Text-based

activistadaptavertcarcinogeniccataclysmcultivateddireequityexacerbatefalloutimperativeimplausibleinundatedmitigationmigrationresilienceskepticalunequivocallyundeterredunprecedented

Literary Terms

anecdoteargumentclaimcounterclaimdescriptionevidenceexamplepersonificationquotationrepetitionrelevant evidencerhetorical questionstatisticssufficient evidence

To see all the vocabulary for Unit 5 , view our 8th Grade Vocabulary Glossary.

Supporting All Students

In order to ensure that all students are able to access the texts and tasks in this unit, it is incredibly important to intellectually prepare to teach the unit prior to launching the unit. Use the guidance provided under 'Notes for Teachers' below in addition to the Unit Launch to determine which supports students will need at the unit and lesson level. To learn more, visit the Supporting All Students Teacher Tool.

Notes for Teachers

Lesson Map


Common Core Standards


Core Standards

L.8.2
L.8.2.a
L.8.2.b
L.8.3
L.8.3.a
L.8.4
L.8.4.a
L.8.4.c
L.8.4.d
RI.8.1
RI.8.8
RI.8.9
RL.8.1
SL.8.1
SL.8.1.d
SL.8.3
SL.8.4
W.8.1
W.8.1.a
W.8.1.b
W.8.1.c
W.8.1.d
W.8.1.e
W.8.3
W.8.3.a
W.8.3.b
W.8.3.d
W.8.5
W.8.7
W.8.8
W.8.9

Supporting Standards

L.8.1
L.8.2.c
L.8.5
L.8.5.a
L.8.5.b
L.8.5.c
L.8.6
RI.8.2
RI.8.3
RI.8.4
RI.8.5
RI.8.6
RI.8.7
RI.8.10
RL.8.2
RL.8.4
RL.8.9
RL.8.10
SL.8.1.a
SL.8.1.b
SL.8.1.c
SL.8.6
W.8.2
W.8.2.a
W.8.2.b
W.8.2.d
W.8.2.f
W.8.3.c
W.8.3.e
W.8.4
W.8.6
W.8.9.a
W.8.9.b
W.8.10

Next

Identify a writer's claims in a text and explain how they support those claims, as well as how they respond to conflicting viewpoints.

Lesson 1
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