Expository Writing Lesson: Indigenous Heroes
Lesson Plan
1 hour 40 minutesGrades11, 12English Language Arts
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Written by Hannah Loera
About this lesson
In this lesson, students learn about Indigenous sustainability practices, including in Hawai’i, and write short, informative biographies of Indigenous climate leaders.
Inquire: Students consider personal connections to sustainability in their community and learn about the Indigenous practice of 7th generation thinking.
Investigate: Students learn about Indigenous sustainability practices and climate leaders across different parts of the world through videos and articles.
Inspire: Students write short informative biographies in the form of comic pages to highlight Indigenous climate heroes.
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Positives
- This lesson aligns with Hawai'i's Nā Hopena A'o HĀ-BREATH Framework.
- Students have the autonomy to explore climate activists that they find interesting.
- Students feel connected to the youth activists they are researching because they are young people from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
- Students will feel inspired to take an active role in their future.
- Students can choose to present their information in a digital or hand-drawn format.
Additional Prerequisites
- This is lesson 1 of 2 in our 11th-12th grade Climate Superheroes unit.
- Teachers should be familiar with the following ōlelo (Hawaiian language):
- Ahupua'a: watershed
- Kupuna: elders, experts, wisdom carriers
- Makai: ocean
- Mauka: mountain
- Students should possess a background understanding of informative writing. They should use a third-person point of view, proper grammar and punctuation, and text evidence.
Differentiation
- The Investigate and Inspire sections can be completed on different days.
- Students can share their work in a physical gallery walk for an added movement break or a shared slideshow for movement-impaired students.
- Teachers can use the following scaffolding options as needed:
- Read aloud the article and accompanying written resources.
- Provide sentence stems for students to guide them through the informative writing section.
- Allow students to complete the written portion through the Google Docs talk-to-text feature.
- Ensure closed captioning is enabled for all videos.
- Options for differentiating the video Spotlight On: Indigenous Leadership in the US Environmental and Climate Justice Movements include:
- Assigning the full video for homework.
- Playing the video from 6:30-27:30 for the whole class, pausing between each introduction of climate leaders.
- Students can conduct additional research on their climate heroes to add more depth to their comic books.
- English Language Learner students can pre-read the article with teachers.
- Students can record new words and definitions on a class vocabulary board or individual notebook. For example, the article From the Mountains to the Sea includes words that may be unfamiliar to some students such as idyll, picturesque, sediment, and turqoise.
From the scientist review
The need to include Indigenous peoples' stories, thoughts, sustainable solutions, and voices in the international climate debates is emphasized in this lesson as well as their involvement in the battle against climate change. It is crucial to highlight the work that Indigenous climate activists and leaders are doing in their communities to combat climate change, and this is something that should be emulated. This lesson passed our science review after the lesson materials were fact-checked.
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About the teacher writer
Hannah Loera
Special Education English Teacher
Hannah Loera is a special education and English teacher with over 20 years of experience in education. She holds an undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice from Truman State University and a Master of Education in Instructional Leadership from Chaminade University. Hannah is certified to teach Special Education (Grades 6–12) and Secondary English (Grades 6–12)
