Prep
- Try out the exercise on your own before engaging with the learners.
- It can be challenging for learners to come up with a story of their own, and from experience the learners need to connect with their own emotions and values, as well as the stories of others before writing their own story. Before writing a connection story, it would be useful to explore some other CLARITY tools with the learners, especially activities on listening, emotions and values, for example:
- Optional: Bring objects in the classroom that illustrate the theme of connection to nature and climate change. For example a plant whose habitat is shrinking, art pieces, a plank from a house broken by a hurricane/a flood, a plant whose habitat will grow, or a stick with leaves that sprout earlier this year than just a few decades before.
Steps in the activity
- Practice free writing
- Establish climate connections
- Write and share your climate/nature connection story
Step 1: Practice free writing
(25 MIN. IN CLASS)
- Introduce the concept of free writing to learners. The learners can write whatever they want, there are no restrictions or ‘wrong’ responses, only exciting ideas. (This first step is here to let the learners write freely, and to think about nature. The connection to climate change does not have to appear in the stories yet, it will emerge in steps two and three.) You can suggest the following prompts:
- I remember one time in nature…
- In nature, I feel…
- When it comes to nature, I value/care for…
- I hope…
- After giving learners the prompt, and before they start writing, ask them to do a simple movement with their hands for a few seconds, such as:
- Twisting their wrists
- Rubbing their hands together
- Clapping and shooting one hand forward.
- Optional: for learners who are not inspired, invite them to write about one of the objects illustrating connection to nature or climate change, which you brought into the classroom.
- Invite learners to work with the prompts in one or a mix of the following ways:
- Individually by writing for a set amount of time (3 min) in response to each prompt. In that case, do close the exercise by asking each learner to highlight a word or sentence they wrote and inviting them to share their highlighted word or sentence with the group.
- Collectively by making mind maps together. Put posters with the prompts on tables/walls/the floor in the classroom or in a suitable outdoor space. Provide colourful markers, and encourage the learners to walk around and write/draw on the posters. In that case, do close the exercise by summing up the key points from each poster in a non-judgmental way. Working collectively is recommended for children and youth from 6 to 18 years old.
Learners’ hands holding their mind maps about the prompts from step 1.1. Photo: Marte Maurabakken/Climate Creativity.
Step 2: Establish climate connections
(20 MIN. IN CLASS)
- Introduce learners to the definition of climate resilience, as explained in the teacher’s guide.
- Invite learners to go back to their favorite prompt, and reflect on the connection between their response and climate resilience.
- Invite learners to brainstorm in pairs or small groups, while you can support any pairs/groups struggling to see connections.
- Take care to ask about and expand on what emerges from the learners themselves, rather than steering their thoughts and texts in any particular direction. When you help them, use your knowledge of climate change in combination with what the individual learner writes or talks about.
- If they still struggle to connect their initial text to climate change and resilience, you can help them further through questions such as these:
- The parts of nature you wrote about in your text – how will it be affected by climate change?
- The parts of nature you wrote about in your text – what might reduce their climate resilience? What might strengthen their climate resilience?
- Who and/or what can strengthen climate resilience?
- What examples of climate resilience can you find that are related to the text you wrote?
- What examples of climate resilience in nature can you think of?
- When each group has established some connections to climate change, invite learners to re-use their favorite prompt, in relation to climate change, by writing about this connection for 10 minutes.
Learners reflecting on connections to climate change, writing mind maps on a screen. Photo: Marte Maurabakken/Climate Creativity.
Step 3: Write and share your climate/nature connection story
(45 MIN. IN CLASS)
- Introduce the framework of a connection story, by highlighting that it is a personal story (about them!) and could include elements such as the learner’s memories, experiences, sensations, emotions, values, knowledge, ideas, reflections, hopes and dreams.
- Continue to focus and expand on what emerges from the learners themselves. If they still struggle to connect their initial text to climate change and resilience, you can help them further through questions such as these:
- In relation to climate change – what do you hope? Fear? Dream of? Do? Feel? Work towards? Cooperate with? Fight? Experience? Avoid?
- Climate change might affect the parts of nature that you wrote about earlier. What does this make you think or feel?
- Do you know about anyone fighting for or supporting the parts of nature that you wrote about? What do you think and feel about that?
- Which aspects of climate change, or which change-affected geographical areas, makes you feel anything? What does it make you think about?
- Continue to focus and expand on what emerges from the learners themselves. If they still struggle to connect their initial text to climate change and resilience, you can help them further through questions such as these:
- Let the learners discuss in pairs how to develop their last response to their favorite prompt into a climate connection story.
- Support learners as they work on their stories individually.
- Close this exercise by inviting learners to share their stories with the group.
Learners in the outdoors classroom, brainstorming their personal stories together in pairs. A learner is holding a small rock in their hand. A teacher is talking with one of the learners. A learner holds up a pen together with a pine cone they found while brainstorming. Photo: Marte Maurabakken/Climate Creativity.
Dos and Don’ts
Do
Focus on letting the learners express themselves in text. Focus on encouraging and expanding on the learners thoughts, rather than judging the text.
Adaptations
Young learners:
To make the activity engaging for young learners you can dress in a way that illustrates the theme of connection to nature, or use objects instead of prompts for the free writing practice. You could bring objects to class or let the learners go out into nature and bring back some nature elements (stones, sticks, leaves etc.) themselves.
University level:
This activity can be used as a simple pass/fail assignment at university level. If you choose to use this as a graded exercise, remember to make it clear to the learners from the beginning that this will be a graded assignment and that the stories will be read by the teacher.
The activity can be used in a literature course, and include examples in literature on the topic of “departing from anthropocentrism”. It could open a discussion on traditions and norms of seeing nature as good or evil, and on how we distort our image of nature based on aspects of our own culture.
—
We invite you to adapt this activity to the specific needs of your learners, including by taking into account their neurodiversity. When adapting tools and activities for neurodivergent learners, please note it is not about treating others how you want to be treated, but how they want to be treated. Ask, listen, and stay open to different ways of learning and engaging.
References
This activity was designed by Climate Creativity.
Climate Generation. (2024, January 23). Storytelling – climate generation https://climategen.org/take-action/storytelling/
Bentz, J. (2023). Creative Approaches to Climate and Peace Education: An educator’s guide to using storytelling and art. Braunschweig: Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute. https://repository.gei.de/bitstream/handle/11428/337/Creative%20Approaches%20to%20Climate%20and%20Peace%20Education_20230306_WEB_Sp.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
