Overview:
Climate literacy equips educators to foster student understanding, relationships, and imaginative action in response to the climate crisis.
Everywhere I look, I hear about it. See it. Feel it. Experience it. For decades now, I have not been able to escape it for a single day. I don’t necessarily want to escape it; it’s too important to do that. Although it’s such a heart-heavy issue for me that I sometimes wish I could just forget about it. So what, I’ve asked myself time and again, is an English and reading teacher to do about it–about this seemingly “sciencey” problem? Because the “it” I am referring to is (call it what you will) climate change, global warming, the climate crisis.
One thing I can say is that I’ve been trying to do for over ten years now is to infuse my curriculum with skills and knowledge that might enlighten students who wish to know more and/or do more. And, admittedly, I’ve wanted to know more and feel like I’m doing more, too. The work, however, has felt isolating. I kept questioning why there isn’t more, a lot more, out there for teaching about the health of the planet? Why, too, isn’t this issue a top priority for every educator? This spring, I found a dynamic, burgeoning answer and, incredibly, I also found my people.
In May, I stumbled upon, applied for, and was accepted to attend a three-day institute offered in June titled “Schools for the Planet” by the Center for Climate Literacy (CCL) through the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. It was fantastic. One of the first things we did was define and come to understand what Climate Literacy means. We then explored the themes of relationality, interconnectivity, and action in the context of Climate Literacy. Finally, we developed multimodal teaching and reflective materials tailored to our disciplines, as we were a cohort of K-16 educators.
By the end of day three, I had not only planted and watered the seeds for a fresh, green path that my sixth-grade online course could follow, but I had also sprouted roots for growing and branching out in a newfound, brilliant, caring community.
Climate Literacy: What is it?
Climate Science Literacy: An understanding of your influence on climate and climate’s influence on you and society.
Climate Literacy: An understanding of climate change that includes Climate Science Literacy but centers on developing attitudes and values aligned with how we should live to respect and be responsible to our planetary home.
I found the following quote by Marek Oziewic, Department Chair for Curriculum and Instruction and Director of the Center for Climate Literacy at UMN, a wonderful window into the heart of Climate Literacy.
“Climate change is not primarily a scientific or technological challenge, but a challenge into our imaginations and story systems…our brains are hardwired for narrative understanding, not numbers. Our most advanced technology for meaning-making and processing information is called the story,” (2022).
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines Climate Science Literacy as “an understanding of your influence on climate and climate’s influence on you and society.” Thus, Climate Science Literacy fails to take the story into explicit account.
Enter Climate Literacy.
Climate Literacy, as defined by the CCL, is “an understanding of climate change that includes climate science but centers developing attitudes and values aligned with how we should live to respect and be responsible to our planetary home.”
And the main e-vehicle for centering these developments? Stories.
Why stories? Because stories offer avenues for relationality–living in relationship to and caring for both our fellow human beings and the natural world. Stories show us interconnectivity–an understanding that the social and natural worlds are deeply intertwined and that everything matters/has a role in the web of life. And stories are a call to action–a call to work together to create change, solve complex problems, and impact systems.
If addressing climate change is primarily a challenge for our imaginations and story systems, then stories in all forms for all students are the most important conduit for raising climate awareness and mobilizing climate action. As a devoted story lover, you can imagine my complete delight at learning about Climate Literacy.
How Might Climate Literacy Look in My Classroom?
Not everyone is like me, though. The answer is that the Climate Literacy Center’s story might not nourish everyone’s teaching soul. In my 2025 Schools for the Planet cohort, we had kindergarten teachers, elementary teachers, a middle school Science teacher, a middle school Spanish Immersion teacher, a middle school computer science teacher, a high school Social Studies teacher and ESL teacher, a Girl Scouts leader, and an early childhood pre-service teacher. This list is not comprehensive, but I hope it gives you an idea of how widespread our teaching worlds were. Yet here we were, doing this work together. So something about Climate Literacy had spoken to them on an inner level. Somewhere along the line, just like me, they, too, had wondered, What can I do in my work? We had all found a place to find out.
On the final day, we had the opportunity to share how we plan to practice Climate Literacy in our classrooms. The plans could be very budding and nascent or, as one participant shared, part of a growing, long-term, district-wide initiative that was already underway.
As stated earlier, I decided to revamp my whole sixth-grade course. I broke the year into quarters and themed each one after the four elements: wind, fire, water, and Earth. In each quarter students will get to choose a choice novel related to the theme in some way, and my teaching texts will be poems, short stories, and articles that help not only teach the standards and hold the thematic threads together, but offer rich opportunity for exploration of the natural world–recording, speaking and writing about it, as well as listening to and learning from these short, mentor texts and each other. (See and explore the Climate Lit link in the next section for ideas on texts.) As an online teacher with students logging in from across the entire state of Minnesota, I am particularly interested in having students step away from their screens and venture outside, into their own unique corner of the state, and then return to share their experiences with us.
Not everyone chooses to work on a project with such a large scope. Lessons for a book discussion, a reading and reflection activity, and a lesson in identifying cause and effect through a reading were also created. There were also projects that spanned 2-3 weeks, including one that aimed to map elementary social studies and science standards using Climate Literacy attitudes and skills, with an eye to developing compelling questions. Additionally, a teacher designed a differentiated project where students would create a pollinator landscape. Just as varied as we were, so, too, were our creations.
What and Who?
Perhaps, hopefully, your interest in climate literacy has been piqued. Maybe, hopefully, you have something in mind, something you’d like to create. Allow me to offer you some resources and introduce you to other people and places that are also doing this work. And maybe, hopefully, we will meet somewhere down the line. Because, as you know now, the story of climate change, global warming, the climate crisis (call it what you will) is not a story about going at it alone. It’s not someone else’s story to tell. It’s everyone’s story to plan, write, revise, and share. It’s the powerful story of us being and doing better by being and doing together. Whether you start with a single poem you read aloud, a story walk outside with your classroom, or a reflective journal entry on nature–just start. Climate Literacy belongs in every school and is accessible to everyone.
Resources (Not an exhaustive list!)
● Center for Climate Literacy, University of MN
○ Climate Lit
● New Jersey Climate Change Education Resources
● Ecoliteracies for Climate Action in Florida
● The All We Can Save Project
● CLEAN
● Climate Generation (You can also check with your state’s DNR.)
Katie Kunz has been a secondary English and reading teacher, primarily in alternative settings, for over twenty years. She earned an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults and she prioritizes student and environmental wellness in both her teaching and her writings. The Shared Reading Society is an organization she founded that gets at the heart of what she loves: fostering connection through story. She lives, works, and plays in Minneapolis, MN with her partner, their two young boys, and their furry Frenchie–Eddie.
