BTN Climate Representations

Overview

In lesson 6 of the unit Representations of Australian Youth, students examine a Behind the News segment about the School Strike for Climate movement. They use viewing, reading and discussion strategies to analyse how young climate activists are represented, and support their interpretations with evidence from the report.

Learning intentions

• WALT discuss the impact of the School Strike for Climate movement.
• Students will identify how a media report represents youth climate activists.
• Students will analyse visual, spoken and written language used to shape viewers’ responses.
• Students will support an evaluation with evidence from the report and a related reading passage.

Success criteria

• I can describe how young climate activists are represented.
• I can identify evaluative language and visual features in a media report.
• I can explain how a feature influences the audience.
• I can support my ideas with specific evidence from what I viewed or read.

Curriculum links

• Evaluative language and substantiating judgements about visual and multimodal texts.
• Comprehension strategies including predicting, questioning, inferring, connecting and summarising.
• Language features shaped by audience and purpose.
• Structure of ideas, including cause and effect.
• Ideas, points of view and issues in literary and non-literary representations of Australian youth.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–5 min · Hook and prediction. Teacher displays the question “How should young people respond when adults do not act on an important issue?” and briefly introduces the School Strike for Climate movement; students make an individual prediction, then share one possible viewpoint with a partner using the hook and prediction slide.

2. 5–12 min · Vocabulary and context. Teacher explicitly teaches activist, movement, climate change, protest, representation, perspective, evidence, impact and explains that a representation is a constructed portrayal rather than a complete picture; students match each word to a brief definition on the vocabulary and viewing organiser and suggest whether each word sounds neutral, positive or negative.

3. 12–25 min · First viewing. Teacher plays the selected BTN report with captions enabled, pausing only to clarify essential context; students use visualising, questioning and inferring to record the report’s topic, key people, main issue and first impression of the activists on the vocabulary and viewing organiser. Students may follow the transcript while viewing.

4. 25–35 min · Close viewing and reading. Teacher replays two or three short extracts, directing attention to interview choices, images, music, camera shots and evaluative words, then distributes the evidence and representation analysis alongside this short passage:

The School Strike for Climate movement brought students into public debate about climate change. Young people attended rallies, made speeches and asked governments to reduce emissions. Supporters viewed the strikes as a powerful example of civic participation. Some critics questioned whether students should miss school or whether young people had enough experience to influence policy. The movement therefore represented youth as both concerned citizens and challenging voices in a public conversation.

Students annotate one spoken or visual feature from the report and one idea from the passage, identifying the effect on the audience.

5. 35–50 min · Interest-based focus groups. Teacher forms groups according to students’ interest in climate change, such as environmental action, youth voice, media representation or differing viewpoints. Groups answer: “How does the report represent youth climate activists, and how might this representation influence viewers?” Students select at least two pieces of evidence, explain a cause-and-effect relationship, and prepare a concise response using the sentence frame: “The report represents young activists as ___ through ___. This may cause viewers to ___ because ___.”

6. 50–60 min · Share, evaluate and exit ticket. Teacher uses the discussion and plenary slides to invite groups to share one claim and one supporting detail, then asks students to complete the final section of the evidence and representation analysis: “Overall, is the report’s representation of youth climate activists convincing? Explain using two pieces of evidence.” Students submit the response as their exit ticket.

Resources

• Teacher-selected BTN report about the School Strike for Climate movement
• the complete introduction, viewing, analysis and plenary slide deck
• the vocabulary, viewing and evidence analysis worksheet
• Captions and transcript for the BTN report
• Projector, speakers and reliable internet or downloaded video
• Whiteboard and markers
• Highlighters or coloured pencils

Assessment

• Listen to partner predictions and vocabulary discussion to check prior knowledge and understanding of evaluative language.
• During close viewing and group work, check whether students distinguish description from interpretation and refer to specific spoken, visual or written evidence.
• Use the exit ticket to assess whether students can make a judgement about representation, explain audience impact and substantiate their view with two details.

Differentiation

• Provide closed captions and a transcript for all students, with permission to pause, replay and read before responding. Offer dyslexia-friendly formatting: a clear sans-serif font, increased spacing, short lines, bold key vocabulary and the passage read aloud.
• Use flexible focus groups based on interest in climate change, while ensuring each group includes a clear question and shared speaking or recording roles.
• Support students with a vocabulary bank, visual examples, colour-coded evidence boxes and sentence starters such as “The word ___ suggests…” and “The image of ___ positions viewers to…”.
• Allow students to record an oral response, dictate to a scribe or use speech-to-text. Challenge confident students to compare the report’s representation with the alternative viewpoint in the reading passage and comment on reliability or balance.