Blue - Ocean Health Creative Writing

Australian curriculum (8.4) content descriptions:

Year 7 English:

• Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, selecting aspects of subject matter and particular language, visual, and audio features to convey information and ideas (ACELY1725)
• Edit for meaning by removing repetition, refining ideas, reordering sentences and adding or substituting words for impact (ACELY1726)

Syllabus outcomes: EN4-2A, EN4-4B

General capabilities: Literacy, Personal and Social Capability, Ethical Understanding, Critical and Creative Thinking, Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability

Relevant parts of Year 7 English achievement standards: Students demonstrate understanding of how the choice of language features, images and vocabulary affects meaning. They understand how the selection of a variety of language features can influence an audience. Students create structured and coherent texts for a range of purposes and audiences. They demonstrate understanding of grammar, use a variety of more specialised vocabulary and accurate spelling and punctuation.

Unit of work: Blue The Film: Our Oceans and Our Future.

Time required: 90 mins.

Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

• Target 14.1: By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution.

• Student Worksheet – one per student
• Device capable of presenting a website, clip and digital worksheet to the class
• Ocean Stimulus Images
• Sensory Writing Example
• Sensory and Descriptive Writing Factsheet
• Ocean Change Factsheet
• Editing Checklist

This lesson is designed to build students’ competencies in the following skills:

• collaboration
• communication
• creativity
• critical thinking
• social skills
• global citizenship

Level of teacher scaffolding: Low – lead students in discussion.

Blue is a feature documentary film charting the drastic decline in the health of our oceans. With more than half of all marine life lost and the expansion of the industrialization of the seas, the film sets out the challenges we are facing and the opportunities for positive change. Blue changes the way we think about our liquid world and inspires the audience to action. Find out how to screen or download the film here. Along with the film is an ambitious global campaign to create advocacy and behaviour change through the #oceanguardian movement. To become an ocean guardian, see the website.

How To Teach Sustainability With Hope

Quick summary: This course is for both primary and secondary teachers of all subjects, but especially for English, Science, Humanities and Geography teachers who are covering climate change and the cross-curriculum priority of sustainability.