Impacts of Climate Change in New Jersey Writing Lesson
Lesson Plan
55 minutesGrades6, 7, 8Earth and Space Sciences, English Language Arts
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Written by Dan Castrigano, Christa Delaney
About this lesson
In this lesson, students learn about climate change, choose one impact of climate change affecting New Jersey, and write a claim-evidence-reasoning paragraph explaining why they believe it is the worst impact of climate change in New Jersey.
Inquire: Students watch a video on the basics of climate change.
Investigate: Students take notes while watching four videos on the impacts of climate change in New Jersey.
Inspire: Students select one of the impacts of climate change in New Jersey and write a paragraph explaining why they believe it is the worst impact of climate change.
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Everything you need to teach it
How to edit these materials (video)Teaching tips
Suggestions
- This lesson can be used and adapted to teach various paragraph structures. Additionally, writing can be extended into multiple paragraphs or used to practice specific writing techniques.
- The color coding of the sentences in the paragraph is helpful for concrete thinkers.
- This lesson could be used in a writing workshop with peer editing, self-review, and a final draft.
- Teachers can use their own classroom-established rubrics.
Prerequisites
- This lesson shows some of the impacts of climate change. Some of these might be difficult to hear. Students may feel anger, sadness, anxiety, or grief after hearing about some of these devastating impacts. Encourage them to share their emotions.
- There is, of course, no right answer to “What’s the worst impact of climate change?” These impacts of climate change are all catastrophic in their own right.
- Encourage the students to use as many hard facts as possible in their supporting sentences. These include dates, names, places, and specific events.
- You can choose 2-3 climate change impact videos if you do not want to use all of them.
- Make sure students know that there are many other impacts of climate change aside from the four impacts in the four videos. Other impacts of climate change include extreme weather events, mass extinction, climate migration, etc. The goal of this lesson is to choose one of those four impacts of climate change.
Differentiation
- Most students will benefit from color coding their sentences. Encourage them to keep their text highlighted as they write. They can even keep their paragraphs highlighted after they finish.
- Students who need additional support can start with an outline of ideas before writing five sentences, or use a template with sentence starters.
- Students can be challenged to use complex or compound sentences and expand more in their supporting sentences.
- If students struggle with their closing sentences, ask them to read their claim sentences aloud. Sometimes this helps guide their thinking.
- Stronger students who finish early can read their paragraphs to one another, discuss the writing process, and discuss possible solutions to climate change.
From the scientist review
This lesson illustrates the impacts of climate change in New Jersey. Five video resources are presented that provide background information, answer skepticism, and explore four key implications of climate change in New Jersey. The four climate impact videos are well-sourced and address local concerns with scientists from Rutgers and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Students are tasked with deciding which is the worst impact of climate change and then writing a paragraph to support their claim. This lesson is recommended for teaching.
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About the teacher writers
Dan Castrigano
Academic Teacher at Burlington YouthBuild
Dan Castrigano taught STEM and humanities at elementary, middle, and high schools for 11 years. From 2021-2023, he served as the Chief Content Officer at SubjectToClimate. Dan advocates for climate education and organizes for climate, social, and racial justice.
Christa Delaney
Christa Delaney holds a Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Studies and Teacher Education from Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and a Professional Science Master's in Environmental Studies and Sustainability from Unity College. She has been teaching since 2005 and has 21 years of experience teaching Advanced Placement Environmental Science to grades 11–12. Christa is certified to teach Biological Science and specializes in environmental science and sustainability education.
