Quick Start Guide to Implementing Climate Change Education in World Languages
Climate change education goals in world languages prepare students to use knowledge of cultural products and practices to help understand diverse perspectives related to climate change in one’s own culture and other cultures and to participate in local, regional, and global communities on issues related to climate change.
Resources to Understand Climate Change in New Jersey
- provides basic background and resources to teach about climate change.
- is a suite of data-visualization and mapping tools designed to assist planners, community leaders, businesses, and residents to understand and adapt to the impacts of climate change on people, assets, and communities in New Jersey.
Resources to Understand Climate Change in Other Cultures
- provides research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems.
- has expert-informed multimedia resources to navigate climate change in today’s connected world.
- includes existing projects designed to live in balance with our planet from around the world.
Planning and Instructional Resources
NJ Climate Change Educational Resources provides information on interdisciplinary connections across the New Jersey Student Learning Standards, instructional resources, real world activities and challenges, community engagement, and partnership
Planning Reflection Questions
- Can I extend or revise an existing unit plan or do I need to create a unit plan on a culturally relevant topic related to climate change?
- Decide on outcomes related to climate change:
- What is the essential question to guide the unit?
- What will my students know and be able to do at the end of this unit?
- What will my students examine about their own culture? Other cultures?
- Decide on context/content related to climate change:
- Is it relevant to my students’ lives?
- Is it age appropriate?
- Is there a connection between New Jersey and the target culture(s)?
- Can it be revisited or spiraled?
- Instructional Decisions:
- What authentic resources related to climate change are available?
- Which voices and perspectives are being elevated?
- How will I make it comprehensible without losing the overall meaning?
- Is there alignment across standards, essential questions, assessment and learning outcomes?
Instructional Resources
- is a project by Climate Outreach providing evidence-based and impact-focused climate photography resources in multiple languages.
- is a grade 3-5 exemplar Spanish lesson series in making connections between New Jersey and target cultures and the use of authentic resources from the New Jersey Climate Change Education Hub.
- offers a questionnaire to determine one’s ecological footprint available in Deutsch, English, Español, Français, Italiano, Português, ?????, and 汉语
- contains a searchable database of free resources supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals available in multiple languages.
Planning Reflection Questions
- Can I extend or revise an existing unit plan or do I need to create a unit plan on a culturally relevant topic related to climate change?
- Decide on outcomes related to climate change:
- What is the essential question to guide the unit?
- What will my students know and be able to do at the end of this unit?
- What will my students examine about their own culture? Other cultures?
- Decide on context/content related to climate change:
- Is it relevant to my students’ lives?
- Is it age appropriate?
- Is there a connection between New Jersey and the target culture(s)?
- Can it be revisited or spiraled?
- Instructional Decisions:
- What authentic resources related to climate change are available?
- Which voices and perspectives are being elevated?
- How will I make it comprehensible without losing the overall meaning?
- Is there alignment across standards, essential questions, assessment and learning outcomes?
Instructional Resources
- is a project by Climate Outreach providing evidence-based and impact-focused climate photography resources in multiple languages.
- offers a questionnaire to determine one’s ecological footprint available in Deutsch, English, Español, Français, Italiano, Português, ?????, and 汉语
- contains a searchable database of free resources supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals available in multiple languages.
Planning Reflection Questions
- Can I extend or revise an existing unit plan or do I need to create a unit plan on a culturally relevant topic related to climate change?
- Context/Content related to climate change:
- How can I build on the linguistic, cultural, and academic funds of knowledge my students bring to this unit?
- What is the essential question to guide the unit?
- What will my students examine about their own culture? Other cultures?
- Is there a connection between New Jersey and the places where my students’ cultures are present?
- Is it relevant to my students’ lives? Is it age appropriate?
- How will students use what they learn in their community/school community?
- How will I engage in continuous language assessment to build students’ confidence and abilities?
- How will I support the linguistic needs and cultural heritage of my students?
- Instructional Decisions:
- How will I honor and build upon the language students use in their homes and with their families and communities?
- What authentic resources are available from my students’ cultures?
- Which voices/perspectives are being elevated?
- How will I group students?
Instructional Resources
- is a project by Climate Outreach providing evidence-based and impact-focused climate photography resources in multiple languages.
- offers a questionnaire to determine one’s ecological footprint available in Deutsch, English, Español, Français, Italiano, Português, ?????, and 汉语
- contains a searchable database of free resources supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals available in multiple languages.
- provides learning objectives for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how to implement learning for the SDGs. Available in ??????? , 汉语, Русский язык, Français, Português, Español, 日本語, and English.
Planning Reflection Questions
- Can I revise an existing unit plan to incorporate climate change? Does an exemplar plan in another content area exist where there is a connection to partner language cultures?
- Decide on outcomes related to climate change:
- How can I build on the linguistic, cultural, and academic funds of knowledge my students bring to this unit?
- What is the essential question to guide the unit?
- What will my students examine about their own culture? Other cultures?
- Is there a connection between New Jersey and the places where the partner language is present?
- What will my students know and be able to do at the end of this unit? In the partner language? In English? Cross-linguistically?
- How will students use what they learn in their community/school community?
- Instructional Decisions:
- What authentic resources are available?
- Which voices/perspectives are being elevated?
- How will I make it comprehensible without losing the overall meaning?
- The Bridge: What key linguistic elements need to be bridged? What will be examined with contrastive analysis?
Instructional Resources
- is a project by Climate Outreach providing evidence-based and impact-focused climate photography resources in multiple languages.
- offers a questionnaire to determine one’s ecological footprint available in Deutsch, English, Español, Français, Italiano, Português, ?????, and 汉语
- contains a searchable database of free resources supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals available in multiple languages.
- provides learning objectives for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how to implement learning for the SDGs. Available in ??????? , 汉语, Русский язык, Français, Português, Español, 日本語, and English.
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