Teaching It – 1: English Is A Gift
Sarah Dukes, English teacher at The Chase School, Malvern, Worcestershire
Sarah Dukes is an English teacher at The Chase School, a comprehensive in Malvern, Worcestershire (Welcome to The Chase [chase.worcs.sch.uk]) where she is also Sustainability Co-ordinator. She has been in the forefront of initiatives to bring together English studies and environmental concerns, linking both to the creative arts. She posts here about her most recent work.
English is a gift – we can adapt our existing lessons to suit the green agenda: key skills can be taught using the climate crisis and nature as the subject matter – plus, English has the additional benefit of reaching all students.
At The Chase, we explore nature memoirs using extracts from passionate conservationists such as Dara McAnulty, Rachel Carson and Rob Mcfarlane, taking the students outside to apply the skills to their own creative writing.
We teach persuasion using activists like Greta Thunberg, and have switched our class reader to Survival Game, a dystopian YA set in the near future, following a 14-year-old climate migrant. In GCSE language, students write creatively using nature as a prompt, plus explore different writers’ perspectives on global warming and sustainable living; and GCSE literature opens up opportunities to explore set texts with a climate and nature lens.
To find out more:
take a look at Sarah’s blogs which offer ideas, articles and writing prompts using a nature or climate related photo or painting, with accompanying videos:
mrsdukesgreenlens.blogspot.com
X @ecodukes
X @TheChaseEco1
Sarah has also developed materials for Teacher educators, introducing trainee teachers in English to the possibilities and resources in this area; it’s attached here as downloadable PDF: Sept 25 worcester uni climate education – Copy
