A new book on introducing climate change material into English language classrooms by Department of Curriculum and Instruction (C&I) Professor Emeritus Richard Beach is due out after December. Empowering Youth to Confront the Climate Crisis in English Language Arts (Teachers College Press/National Writing Project). The book emphasizes addressing the climate crisis as an important dimension of English language arts and shows how using writing, critical inquiry, literature, media, speaking, the arts, and publishing can help young people understand and address the climate emergency through supportive and empowering transformational learning.
The lead chapter of the book was written by C&I Chair and Professor Marek Oziewicz and Nick Kleese, the associate director of community engagement at C&I’s Center for Climate Literacy. Oziewicz is the director of the center.
Beach, a professor of literacy education, has focused a lot of time on teaching about climate change. “I’m a big supporter of the climate literature project housed in C&I for all of the useful resources it provides for teachers,” he says.
Beach recently coauthored Teaching Climate Change to Adolescents: Reading, Writing, and Making a Difference (Routledge, 2017) and coedited Youth Created Media on the Climate Crisis: Hear Our Voices (Routledge, 2023). He also recently published a report on language and teaching climate change and one on teachers coordinating environmental clubs in two high schools.