Abstract
The topic of climate change and climate justice is politically charged, doesn’t sit neatly within a single subject or content area, and raises concerns of not being ‘age appropriate’ for young children. In this paper we describe how teacher educators in an elementary education program support a student teacher who took up the topic of climate change and climate justice in her 1st grade teaching placement. She designed a unit around a picture book that focuses on the words and work of Greta Thunberg, and used a diverse set of texts to support students’ understanding of the complexity of climate change, it’s impact on our planet and our lives.
Author Biography
Ysaaca D. Axelrod
Ysaaca Axelrod is an assistant professor in the department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies in the College of Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She works with pre-service early childhood and elementary education teachers. She is a former kindergarten teacher. Her research interests are in Early Childhood language and literacy development, with a particular focus on emergent bilingual children.
Denise Ives
Denise Ives is an associate professor in the department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies in the College of Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She works with pre-service early childhood and elementary education teachers. She is a former elementary school teacher. Her research interests are in Child and Youth literacies and Discourse studies and analysis.
Rachel Weaver
Rachel Weaver recently graduated with an M.Ed. in elementary education in the Collaborative Teacher Education Pathway at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her undergraduate degree is in psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and she is deeply committed to teaching for social justice.
Recommended Citation
Axelrod, Y. D.,
Ives, D.,
&
Weaver, R.
(2020).
We Are All Learning about Climate Change: Teaching with Picture Books to Engage Teachers and Students.
Occasional Paper Series,
(44).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.58295/2375-3668.1367
Included in
Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Early Childhood Education Commons, Elementary Education Commons, Elementary Education and Teaching Commons, Language and Literacy Education Commons, Pre-Elementary, Early Childhood, Kindergarten Teacher Education Commons