About Environmental Superheroes of the ELA Classroom
Teaching English-Language Arts through the lens of environmental literacy and justice provides an important opportunity for all students to gain access to environmental learning. As the state of California deepens efforts to include environmental literacy in all content areas, the California Environmental Literacy Initiative's English-Language Arts Working Group interviewed passionate language arts teachers . We collected stories of California TK-12 educators who teach reading, writing, listening, and speaking through the lens of environmental literacy and justice to highlight what this type of work already looks like in TK-12 classrooms and outdoor spaces.
Learn more: https://ca-eli.org/innovation-hubs/professional-learning/#projectsworkinggroups
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Publisher
The California Environmental Literacy Initiative (CAELI)
Building Environmental Literacy through Inquiry, Design, and Local Climate Action
This podcast episode explores how middle school teachers at Nesbit School integrate environmental literacy and solutionary teaching across disciplines. Sixth-grade ELA teachers Tim and Kyle, along with science teacher Cass, guide students in researching climate change, extreme weather, and other environmental challenges while developing practical solutions such as disaster preparedness kits and innovative technologies.
“We're not introducing them to something to be afraid of. We are demystifying and empowering them around something that they already know is happening.” —Tim McIntyre
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22 Jul 2025
A Principal’s Vision for Environmental Literacy: Empowering Teachers, Students, and Communities to Be Solutionary
This podcast episode explores how middle school teachers at Nesbit School integrate environmental literacy and solutionary teaching across disciplines. Sixth-grade ELA teachers Tim and Kyle, along with science teacher Cass, guide students in researching climate change, extreme weather, and other environmental challenges while developing practical solutions such as disaster preparedness kits and innovative technologies.
“We're not introducing them to something to be afraid of. We are demystifying and empowering them around something that they already know is happening.” —Tim McIntyre
Explore the episode and teacher resources: https://ca-eli.org/ela-superheroes/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
4 Jun 2025
Local Labor History and Community Agency in the Midst of the Climate Crisis
Quinn Cataldi discusses his cannery unit, where multilingual students explore the connections between the Chicano labor movement and social and environmental justice, empowering them to propose solutions for systemic issues like the climate crisis; this is an interview.
20 May 2025
Undamming the Klamath: An Expository Reading and Writing Unit that Centers Indigenous Resilience, Climate Action, and the Healing of an Ecosystem
Gurbir Kahlon engages her high school multilingual learners in Torrance, California, with important literacy skills through the lens of environmental literacy. She has taught units in her ELD classroom on biomimicry, plastic pollution, and climate change. In this podcast, Gurbir discusses her most recent expository reading and writing unit on the powerful story of the resilient tribal communities in Northern California and their successful efforts to remove dams on the Klamath River in order to welcome their salmon home.
“Instead of focusing on a doomsday approach to teaching students, which heightens anxiety, I want to work to empower students and offer solutions.”
Learn more here: https://ca-eli.org/ela-superheroes/
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25 Apr 2025
Falling in Love with Nature and Fighting for It: Inspiring Argument Writing Through Everyday Encounters with Nature
Jodi teaches sixth-grade English at Yorba Linda Middle School. As part of the California Writing Project Environmental Literacy and Justice Initiative, Jodi created and taught a unit that pairs wonder and nature writing with formulating opinions and argument writing. Her students first connect with nature through a variety of nature writing opportunities, then students use that connection to inspire both argument writing and artistic expression.
"When you’re talking about environmental justice, kids need to feel like they can do something. It needs to move to the place where they feel like they have power to make change." – Jodi Bonk
Explore the episode and teacher resources: https://ca-eli.org/ela-superheroes/
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31 Mar 2025
Conversations About Food Waste: Meaningful Environmental Literacy and Language Opportunities for Multilingual Learners
Lorena Sanchez is a teacher-librarian serving multilingual learners in grades TK-8 in Tracy Unified School District. Her deep STEM background and participation in the California Writing Project Environmental Literacy and Justice Collaborative inspired her to teach reading, writing, listening, and speaking through the lens of environmental literacy. This podcast features a lesson about a rotting pumpkin that leads students into rich ELA learning opportunities around plant life cycles, composting, and food waste mitigation.
“Allow students to be curious and then come up with solutions to environmental justice problems. Integrating environmental justice into English/language arts makes students not only feel more engaged in their reading and writing but also feel they have the power to affect the world around them.” – Lorena Sanchez
Explore the episode and teacher resources: https://ca-eli.org/ela-superheroes/ (https://ca-eli.org/ela-superheroes/)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
14 May 2024
Empowering Student Action with Speculative Environmental Fiction
This place-based, interdisciplinary high school climate justice speculative fiction writing unit asks students to bring in an imaginative lens to address environmental racism and the climate crisis. For this unit, August collaborates with a World History teacher to integrate various writing genres to help students civically and creatively engage with climate solutions.
“How can I contribute to an overall environmentally just world?” – August Freas
Featured ELA Superheroes:
August Freas (they/them)
Explore the episode and teacher resources: https://ca-eli.org/ela-superheroes/ (https://ca-eli.org/ela-superheroes/)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
14 May 2024
Building Effective Expression Skills Through Middle School Dialogue About Fast Fashion
This podcast showcases an interdisciplinary argumentative reading, writing, listening, and speaking unit that asks students to grapple with who should take responsibility for corporate environmental degradation, specifically in the “fast fashion” shoes and jeans industries. Students engage with various texts and use those texts to formulate verbal and written arguments about a high-interest topic. At the end of the unit, students create a social media reel ecological call-to-action using Canva.
“Wherever I’m at, I want to contribute. I want to participate in this conversation.” – Marivell Arayasirikul
Featured ELA Superheroes:
Marivell Caba Arayasirikul (she/her)
Explore the episode and teacher resources: https://ca-eli.org/ela-superheroes/ (https://ca-eli.org/ela-superheroes/)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
14 May 2024
Place-Based Research, Grant-Writing, and Restoration: 4th Graders Design and Restore Critical Riparian Habitat
Greg teaches reading, writing, listening, and speaking to his 4th graders at Union Street Charter School (https://unionstreetcharter.org/), a public rural elementary school in Humboldt County, California. He simultaneously gets students outside and lets them get their hands dirty. His ongoing local land restoration unit, in partnership with a land trust and a native plant nursery, asks students to research native flora, use database evidence and expert advice to justify and present their choices for the most beneficial and appropriate native plants for the project, write a grant, and then complete the restoration project.
“It’s a powerful way to tie kids to the land…We are part of this land, and we are expected to care for it.” – Greg Gaeira
Featured ELA Superheroes:
Greg Gaeira (he/him)
Explore the episode and teacher resources: https://ca-eli.org/ela-superheroes/ (https://ca-eli.org/ela-superheroes/)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
14 May 2024
Saving Monarch Butterflies and Building Empathy Through Early Literacy
Kindergartners from Golden Charter Academy (https://www.goldencharteracademy.org/), a public TK-5 school in Southwest Fresno, California, advocate for and participate in milkweed restoration in critical monarch habitat, thanks to their teachers Taf Wilson and Melanie Smith. In this interview, you will hear Taf and Melanie talk about their monarch butterfly unit and the ways they engage their students with reading, writing, listening, and speaking while saving butterflies in a project that began with a published curriculum unit and is evolving into a city-wide movement.
“If you give a problem to Kindergartners, they want to take it to the world, and they need everyone to come help them.” – Taf Wilson
Featured ELA Superheroes:
Taf Wilson (she/her)
Melanie Smith (she/her)
Explore the episode and teacher resources: https://ca-eli.org/ela-superheroes/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
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Podcast Authority Score: 2 / 100
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