Creating Stories in ESOL – Climate and Sustainability
Carol Samlal
On Earth Day it seems appropriate (and important) to share something on climate and sustainability issues. Here Carol writes about her workshop at last year's conference. She has also written an article in the current edition of the Language Issues journal which develops the ideas expressed here. There is a link to the slides from the presentation at the end of the blog post. Check details for this year's conference here.
This blog is especially for those of you weren’t able to attend last year's conference as raising awareness of current climate issues and encouraging ideas to be sustainable is crucial in the current climate (ha! Yes, pun intended!)
The idea of using stories came from various media and sources where there is a similar trend of trying to inspire sustainable change in this way. This workshop focused on the use of storytelling to try and achieve a similar goal. It was meant to be a fun and engaging way to encourage learners to pay close attention to their environment and collaborate to find ways to protect our living planet for generations to come.
Although I will get to the fun classroom ideas part, I do want to take you through the preamble, which is important too. Just a little look at the use of stories, and the ‘what and why’ behind the drive to be sustainable. First though, what does it mean to sustainable? There are some very good definitions out there, especially by the UN, but a simpler one might resonate on a personal level. I’d like to offer this version: “Sustainability is the ability to consistently make decisions in the best interests of the planet/environment for our present and future, and generations to come.” (You can quote me on that!)
There are all sorts of ways people are being advised to be sustainable – to recycle, use public transport, use LED lights, turn off heating when not in use, compost, grow own etc. These are all small things we can do and continue to do – which is fantastic. But we could also encourage others to keep adding to their stories, new chapters on what they can do to make sure we look after our living home and all its inhabitants.
You most likely will agree that storytelling is a timeless art. It’s enjoyable and effective – it can grab someone’s attention, pass on information, or share valuable knowledge. Not to mention, humans are really very good at it too; we’ve been telling stories since the dawn of human history and in all manner of ways, including songs, poetry and more recently, movies. For generations that was how we learnt about our world, and our place in it.
Of late many have been talking about how we need to have a new story. From Guardian writer, George Monbiot to First Nations indigenous leaders like Sherri Mitchell, to academics such as Kate Raworth and Professor William Rees, they all speak about a new story to help us to navigate the metacrisis that is unfolding in our lifetime (don’t worry if you’ve not heard of some of these people, helpful links to follow).
But over time the (human) story changed, and our world that was once intertwined with the natural world shifted to a new world. This (brave) new world saw magnificent progress in commerce, trade, science, and technology, only the price was ‘the Great Forgetting’ and the unleashing of unrestrained consumption of a finite planet.
Plus, we also forgot that we thrive best in communities, supporting each other; yet another reason for encouraging others to collectively write a new story to help us to remember our place within the natural order of life.
It means therefore that a new story is desperately needed to raise awareness about the seriousness of the climate issues, and what we can and should be doing armed with this knowledge.
Before we can write or add to our stories however, it would be good to step back and remind ourselves about the ‘what and why’ it is important to be sustainable.
What is it that we need to remember? Earth, in all its splendour. I wonder how many of you think about it as all of us living on this lump of rock, hurtling through space in tandem with a star? Lucky enough to be here at this time in Earth’s lifetime when we are at the perfect distance from the sun, with a magnetic core to protect us, an atmosphere to regulate the temperature, liquid (life sustaining) water, and oxygen.
There really is nowhere else to go if we make a mess of things.
And speaking of mess, well we’ve made quite a stink (to put it very mildly) of our atmosphere and water. Despite the noise on social media from climate deniers, those who think tech will solve it all, or that this is someone else’s problem to solve, we are all being affected, some more disproportionately than others.
Here, take a look at the state of things! This is why we need to make small and big changes in our lives and encourage everyone else to do the same.
Anyways, now that the context is clear, the message behind the story can emerge. We can finally get to the fun bit of the workshop. There were three storytelling ideas on offer:
- Dancing with the Cannibal Giant
- Reshaping our story with words
- Creating the future story
Dancing with the Cannibal Giant
Inspired by: Sacred Instructions, Sherri Mitchell, First Nations Elder (Penobscot & Passamaquoddy tribes) and Nixiwaka Yawanawá, Amazon ambassador & artist (Yawanawá Tribe)
In this workshop, I drew on an indigenous extinction story for the human species, based on the Wabanaki tradition. It involved a cannibal giant, Kee-wawk, and the terrible things he invokes. In the classroom, you could ask your students what they think of these terrible things might be. And you could also ask what of his motives.
Workshops are time-restrictive, so we jumped to activity where I read the story of Kee-wawk from the book, Sacred Instructions by Sherry Mitchell. Then it was over to the groups to complete the activity.
I think all the groups were buzzing with ideas, but there was time enough for only one group to feedback their ideas. Here is what they came up with – Bob’s Garden. Perhaps you can take their ideas and make them into a story for your class. Alternatively, you could turn this into a discussion or extension activity to explore why it is important to have plants, birds, insects, and to introduce new words such as ecosystem, pollinators etc.
Bear in mind that this should always be intimately tied to the idea of sustainability, so ideas that promote a change in behaviour that can be consistently put into practice for generations to come.
Ideas for your class could include responsible consumption and manufacture, travel and holidays, festivals and celebrations – how can we still do and enjoy these things without costing the earth (Mother).
Reshaping our story with words – words matter
Inspired by: World Earth Day 2023, Nate Hagens Director of The Institute for the Study of Energy & Our Future (ISEOF) and Arran Stibbe, Professor of Ecolinguistics, University of Gloucestershire
Words matter, they shape the way we think and relate to the world around us. Take for example these two children’s books. One shows insects as being negative and to be feared (and minimises their value) and the other empowers our little pollinators, raising their status in the world of animals.
There are many words that we use that ‘devalue’ or remove our responsibility from them. Take for example the word ‘milk’. We differentiate milk from ‘breast milk’ which we tend to use to refer to a human mother’s milk. Yet ‘milk’ on its own has no mother in our minds. We simply pop a pint into the trolley and think nothing of it. But shouldn’t this be ‘cow breast milk’? It opens up a discussion about the industrial dairy industry’s practices, where ‘milk’ comes from and the impact on the environment, as well as calling into question whether this process is sustainable or not.
Bringing this into an ESOL context, you can find more words that you and your learners can re-think. Some examples include beef, pork, and mutton that removes us from the animal and the kind of life it would have had up until its slaughter. On the other hand, you could do a word association, where words like chicken or fish might be associated with food instead of living creatures.
Here are some words specific to climate and sustainability that you could consider.
In addition to looking at words through a new lens, you could of course simply teach new words and expressions from the start. Encourage your learners to try to use them in a sentence, or even build a story around each one. Here are a few for you to consider!
And if you wanted, just for yourself, you could examine the prefix ‘eco’ and marvel at the two words – ecosystem and economics, and you’ll see something intriguing emerge. (Find me on Twitter when you’ve figured it out!)
Creating the future story
Inspired by: Climate – A New Story, and Sacred Economics, Charles Eisenstein, American public speaker, teacher, and author
Often when we ask learners to think about the medium-term future, say five years from now, it inevitably becomes a prediction exercise because no one knows for sure what will happen in the future. On the other hand, if your partner or child asked you what is happening tomorrow, chances are you might instead come up with a plan for something to do to fill the day.
The idea then is to take this thinking and invite learners to think about the kind of future they would like to have for themselves and their children, and to then create a plan (of action) that they can embed in their everyday lives.
There are a couple of ways you can do this writing activity – you can have learners collaborate a plan and each person writes about one point, or you can make it more fun with a fold-over story writing activity. Fold-overs require learners to write one sentence, fold the paper and write the last word, then pass to the next person who continues the using that word as a prompt for their sentence. They then fold the paper and pass along repeating until a story emerges. Either way, it can be lots of fun where grammar is taught in situ and ideas that emerge can be discussed and evaluated to see if they are any good in keeping with the topic.
The typical ESOL topics such as shopping, transport, and food, for example, fit in with the UN Sustainable Development Goals too if you wanted to link your learners’ ideas to an established framework.
The session ended with a tribute to Te Ka / Ne Fiti from the Disney movie, Moana. Seeing it again with a sense of deeper awareness, you can appreciate the message and imagery of how our Earth Mother will react when too much is taken from her, and how she will respond when we stop taking more than we need. As parents or carers, we might sometimes feel the same way too.
As you watch the video, listen to Moana’s song Know Who You Are. The first line is important as we will need to cross the horizon of what we’ve known to make the changes that are necessary to return what we have stolen from our Earth Mother.
(Ou mata e matagi)
I have crossed the horizon to find you
(Ou loto mamaina toa)
I know your name
(Manatu atu)
They have stolen the heart from inside you
(Taku pelepele)
But this does not define you
(Manatu atu)
This is not who you are
You know who you are
MOANA - Moana Returns the Heart of Te Fiti - YouTube
There is nothing more important than this crisis that is facing all of us. Our individual problems matter too, and they need our attention, but if we lose sight of what is happening around us, then we will face much harsher problems and we won’t be prepared.
Useful links:
The full slides from the presentation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-iQJlr56YcR0IcxxY1lLSLkWs-VlYeRm/view
A healthy economy should be designed to thrive, not grow | Kate Raworth - YouTube
William E. Rees: "The Fundamental Issue - Overshoot" | The Great Simplification #53 - YouTube
Material world: why we're wired to consume (smh.com.au)
Arthur Berman “Oil: It was the best of fuels, it was the worst of fuels” | The Great Simplification
The Oil Drum: Europe | What is a Human Being Worth (in Terms of Energy)?
We are all connected with nature: Nixiwaka Yawanawa at TEDxHackney - YouTube