Angela Walker, English, West Charlotte High School
Synopsis
This curriculum unit, which analyzes the multidimensional features of climate change, climate displacement, and migration, endeavors to promote critical reading, writing, discussion, and thinking about the complexities of climate migration using Africana futuristic narratives as the inspiration for exploring themes of care/empathy and creation/recreation in order to re-vision a just and inclusive global community. Students explore these themes through an analysis of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Nnedi Okorafor’s Zahrah the Windseeker. In doing so, they will observe and evaluate how race, class, and gender intersect with the impacts and perceptions of climate migration both in literature and in real life. They will develop problem solving and coping strategies for navigating the complexities of eco-grief, anxiety, fear, hopelessness, and hopefulness. Ultimately, this unit aims to initiate engagement and action around the climate issues of greatest concern to students. The unit will culminate with students writing their own climate narratives. These narratives will include students’ visions of a just society that places care for the earth as the chief concern.
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