Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: What cradle?

15 minutes

Find Out: The power of the narrative

25 minutes

Take Action: Narratives for change

15 minutes

Reflection

Tune In: What cradle?

Step 1

Show the video:

What is Cradle t o Cradle? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP8PRA-OajU)

After the video, invite students to discuss the importance of the cradle-to-cradle process, posing the following questions:

What is the difference between the cradle-to-cradle process and the cradle-to-grave process?
Can you give me an example of the cradle-to-grave process?
Can you give me an example of the cradle-to-cradle process?
What impact can shifting to a cradle-to-cradle approach have on the environment? On people? On the economy?

Step 2

Provide them with the ‘Contrasting Cradles’ worksheet, explaining that they are to consider what our world will look like in 20 years if most products continue to have a cradle-to-grave journey. Allow students 5 minutes to sketch their illustration, and then allow them to share their drawings and explain what they drew and why.

Extension: Students can look at the issue through the three pillars of sustainability (social, economic, environmental). They can hone in on just one pillar or divide their drawing into three and think about the consequences from each of these angles.

Learning Support: If students have difficulty wrapping their heads around the idea, ask them to focus on one item (e.g. plastic bottles) and think about how many would build up in 20 years and what the environmental result would be.

Numeracy: From lesson 1 we discovered that each person in Western Australia creates an average of 2.4 tonnes of waste yearly. Using the population of your LGA, have students multiply out 2.4 by the population, by 20 (years). How much waste is that? What would that look like in our LGA?

Step 3

Once the first illustrations have been discussed, invite students to consider how the world would be different if all industries shifted to a cradle-to-cradle mentality and were required to develop products that could be reused, recycled or upcycled. Allow 5 minutes for students to sketch their ideas and again allow them to share their illustrations, explaining how they drew the world and why.

Find Out: The power of the narrative

Step 1

Show the video:

How fiction can change reality - Jessica Wise (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctaPAm14L10)

Upon completion of the video, invite students to discuss the following questions using the Think-Pair-Share approach.

What impact can stories have on the world?
Why do you think stories have this power?
Can you think of a story that has impacted how you think about or see the world?
How could a narrative be used to encourage people to engage with and develop cradle-to-cradle processes?

During the ‘share’ step, highlight any ideas for a story about the cradle-to-cradle process that suggest the use of containers as the central characters in the story. Share wonderings about how a story could be developed about a character that is an inanimate object, leading into the next video.

Step 2

Show the video:

Beauty and the Beast - Be Our Guest [High Quality] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afzmwAKUppU)

Upon completion of the video, pose the following questions to students, discussing each as a class:

What types of characters did we see in this video?
What strategies allowed the audience to connect with the characters that were not human (or not in human form)?
How did this change the audience's perspective or understanding of the experiences of these everyday objects?

Explain to students that this clip gave an example of anthropomorphism. Display the anthropomorphism poster, explaining that this approach is where animals or objects are given human characteristics, such as the objects in the Beauty and the Beast clip. Explain that this allows the reader to build empathy and understanding of completely new and different perspectives, encouraging the reader or audience to see things in a new light.

Pose this question to the class, inviting students to turn-and-talk before discussing it as a group:

How could anthropomorphism help to build a powerful narrative about the cradle-to-cradle and cradle-to-grave processes?

Emphasise how using anthropomorphism to humanise a container and then telling the story of its journey from the first ‘person’ perspective could be an impactful approach that could evoke greater empathy and understanding than simply sharing facts and details about the topic.

Step 3

Provide students with the ‘Narrative Plan’ worksheet. Confirm that students will select a beverage container and develop a narrative that presents the ‘experience’ of that container to engage the reader with the issue and encourage new insights and perspectives.

Explain to students that they will need to consider:

What type of beverage container will they focus on?
Will they reflect the cradle-to-cradle or cradle-to-grave process?
What is the journey of the container(e.g. who buys it, where they throw it away or deposit it, where is it taken from there etc.)?
How will the story present the container’s interactions with people, reflecting how the people's choices directly impact the ‘experience’ of the container itself?

To assist students in considering what type of container they could include in their story and what its experience might be, invite them to move around the room to find the Containers for Change flash cards. Each card they find will have a beverage container on the front. They can flip it over to see what products that item is recycled into when returned for recycling. Once they have decided which container to focus on, they can record this on their narrative plan sheet and continue through the subsequent sections to refine their ideas.

Note: The planning sheet prompts students to record how the container is initially made, as this will form the ‘beginning’ of the container’s journey in the story. They can apply their learnings from earlier lessons in the Containers for Change Unit, or they may need to do some additional research.

Take Action: Narratives for change

Step 1

Provide students with the Narrative Rubric. Share the task expectations, explaining the range of skills to be demonstrated in the students’ writing.

Step 2

Allow time for students to work independently on the writing task. During this time, move around the room to check in with students and support them if they are facing challenges.

Extension Opportunities: There is an opportunity to extend this task into a longer writing focus. If you wish to do this, you may need extra sessions for students to share their work with peers for feedback and revise and edit.

Step 4

Invite students to form pairs or groups of three to share their writing, including discussion of:

which container the story follows
how the choices of the people it interacted with impacted the container’s experience
the message to the reader

Tips for providing feedback

Be kind - It can be hard to share your ideas with others, so remain kind and supportive.

Be specific - Be clear about what you think and why. Rather than saying, ‘I like the colours, ’ say something like, ‘I like how those colours help create a mood that supports your message.

Be helpful - Try not to say what is strong or weak, but make suggestions about how elements could be improved.

Reflection

Step 1

Show the Containers for Change videos:

Pose the following questions for discussion:

After writing your narrative, do you view recycling initiatives such as Containers for Change differently? How/Why?
How has presenting your container in a more humanistic manner altered your perception of or your connection to these objects?
Who can you share your story with to spread the impact and encourage broader change?

Containers for Change WA - From the Cradle to the ..?

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Summary

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UN Sustainable Development Goals

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