SCIENCE

This arts-integrated lesson invites students to explore the impacts of climate change in their communities through a critical reading of and creative response to local news articles. After a brief, embodied warm-up, students begin with a close reading and annotation of an article about recent climate shocks in their city or region. Drawing upon language in the article they find to be interesting or dynamic, students create short, found poems that reflect a key theme or story from the source. Working in pairs, students then collaborate to combine their pieces into a single shared poem. Using Living Newspaper techniques, they devise gestures and frozen images to further communicate the message and feelings of their poems. Students close by sharing their poems with one another and reflecting on how the tools of found poetry and Living Newspaper can deepen and complicate our engagement with various texts.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)

Science, Grade 7 

• (b) Knowledge and skills
  • (A) Ask questions and define problems based on observation or information from text, phenomena, models, or investigation.
• (5) Recurring themes and concepts
  • (B) Identify and investigate cause-and-effect relationships to explain scientific phenomena or analyze problems.

Theatre, Grade 7

• (b) Knowledge and skills
  • (1) Foundations and inquiry:
    • (C) create expressive and rhythmic movement
    • (D) develop an increased understanding of the mechanisms of vocal production;
  • (2) Creative expression: performance
    • (D) create stories collaboratively and individually that have dramatic structure

English Language Arts and Reading, Grade 7

• (b)Knowledge and Skills
  • 6.E–interact with sources in meaningful ways such as notetaking, annotating, freewriting, or illustrating;
  • 9.B–analyze how the use of text structure contributes to the author’s purpose;
  • 9.F–analyze how the author’s use of language contributes to mood, voice, and tone;
  • 11.A–compose literary texts such as personal narratives, fiction, and poetry using genre characteristics and craft;