Understanding Climate Change Through Fiction

Students are able to choose one of three novels: Two Degrees by Alan Gratz, The First Rule of Climate Club by Carrie Firestone or Dry by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman. To build essential context before diving into their novels, they analyzed nonfiction articles detailing how climate change impacts Canadians, sharpening key literacy skills like note-taking and identifying main ideas.

Now, students are working on generating "thick questions": open-ended, thought-provoking prompts that spark deep debate and critical thinking. These inquiries go beyond simple plot recall, requiring students to synthesize their understanding of environmental science with the narratives of their chosen books. After completing their assigned reading, students meet in groups during class to challenge each other with questions they have developed individually, defending their responses with textual evidence and making connections to global environmental trends. 

Beyond this discussion, students are honing their descriptive writing skills. By studying how authors advocate for global issues through engaging narratives, students are practicing using sensory details, figurative language and "show, don’t tell" techniques to craft their own vivid prose. These exercises allow them to internalize the emotional significance of climate change by imagining and describing the human impact of ecological shifts.

To reinforce literature’s real-world connections, students also participated in a tree-planting field trip to Rouge National Urban Park, where they saw firsthand the importance of local conservation efforts. In early June, they will wrap up the unit by hosting Alizé Carrère, a renowned French-American climate researcher and filmmaker. This opportunity to hear from a professional science communicator will help students connect their fictional readings with current research on climate change adaptation.

This year’s condensed four-week program lays the groundwork for a longer cross-curricular project next year, which intends to expand these literary and scientific connections even further.