Picturebook Dialogues About Environmental and Social (In)justice

Climate curriculums and reading practices are urgently needed both in school and higher education. The mobility project Green Dialogues is focused on enhancing the quality of teacher education by strengthening student teachers’ and staff’s ecocritical thinking and collaboration competency. As part of the project the students developed experience-based teaching plans for primary education on how to connect literature activities with reflections on and dialogues about environmental and social (in)justice. This article presents five of these teaching plan infographics and explains their educational context.


The educational context of the infographics
The infographics by Debora Carolo, Giulia Nai, Ilaria Sardella, and Giulia Silvestrini were created within the educational context of a 15 ECTs (about 8 US credits) course on "Sustainable literacy and environmental children's literature."The course combines advanced knowledge about literacy and children's literature with current themes in sustainable development and lifelong learning needed to meet the goals of the UN's Agenda 2030.The literary corpus consisted mainly of contemporary children's literature with an emphasis on environmental connectedness, climate change, and social and environmental (in)justice.Dialogic teaching and the didactic tools related to ecocritical dialogues were applied, tested, and further developed throughout the course.The course included an assignment in which students created an infographic based on their classroom experience with children aged 9-10.The infographic applies ecocritical and educational approaches to a selected corpus of picturebooks that thematize environmental connectedness and social and environmental (in)justice.
The educational context of Rebecca Agostini's infographic was a 16 ECTs course on "Environmental children's literature and teaching English as a foreign language."The course included extensive reading, storytelling, and literary circles as TEFL methodologies, complemented with ecocritical, literary theory, social science, and pedagogical components for education in democratic citizenship.One of the competencies developed in this course was how to combine storytelling, picturebooks, and dialogue-grounded in ecocritical and social approaches-when teaching English as a foreign language.One assignment consisted in designing a teaching proposal that involves storytelling with a picturebook.The selected book had to lend itself to developing prereading, during-reading, and post-reading activities that foster dialoguing and critical thinking on sustainability and social (in)justice.

The format of the infographics
Students were asked to create infographic posters or booklets to help primary school teachers design lesson plans related to children's literature, environmental issues, and child-oriented learning activities that stimulate affective, critical, and collaborative ways of thinking.The infographics were designed as a step-by-step guide on how to carry out activities and to provide teachers with educational justifications for each step.In line with the Green Dialogues project parameters, these justifications link up with key ideas in dialogic teaching, environmental literacy, performative and aesthetical picturebook mediation.
A few final notes: except for Forêt des frères by Yukiko Noritake, all picturebooks are available in English.Noritake's book is available in the original French, as well as in Italian, Spanish, and Catalan translations.All five lesson plans are designed to be carried out within the frame of one to four lessons/class periods, approximately 45-60 minutes each.They are designed for groups of 15 to 30 primary school students, preferably with two teachers in the classroom.

The five infographics
The first two infographics (figures 1 and 2) address one of UN's most disputed Sustainable Development Goals-SDG 8, decent work and economic growth-by displaying how economic growth and humanity's greed for natural resources have caused today's climate crisis.Both infographics suggest ecocritical reading activities to enable primary school students' transformative responses to the picturebook by imagining alternatives.

Title
How to Talk About the Exploitation of Nature with Children

Grade Level(s)
Students age 9-10 years

Core Text
The Giving Tree (1964) by Shel Silverstein

Supporting Texts
United Nations SDG 8 and 15

Objectives
At the end of the lesson students will have shared and discussed their thoughts on humanity's greed and its consequences.They will have had the opportunity to express their own suggestions on how humans can respond or take action in more generous and sustainable ways.

Figure 1 (below). Infographic by Giulia Nai on Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree
Bibliography: Silverstein, S., (1964) The teacher reads aloud the story and shows the pictures to the children.
The text is short and with pictures it is easy to understand.The repetitions in the book are engaging and they push the reader to turn the page and find out what happens next.

How to talk about the exploitation of nature with children
The Giving Tree (1964) is a children's picturebook by Shel Silverstein.
The story is about the relationship between a boy and a tree: The boy asks and pretends, and nature gives.
Children (9-10 years) can focus on environmental ethics, nature-human connections and actions-consequences.
They have an important role in building a better future for our planet, and talking about this topic at school is a good beginning.
The suggested activities take 2-3 hours.

Brainstorming on the cover 1.
The teacher asks the children what they see and what they think the book is about.They can write down their ideas on a post-it note and stick it near an image of the cover; at the end, the teacher reads all the notes.

Discussion about the message of the story
Together the class discusses : "How did the boy treat the tree?How did the tree treat the boy?Do you think that humans take good care of nature?Why?"

Brainstorming about emotions
Children can share emotions and feelings: "How does the boy feel?How does the tree feel?And how do you, as a reader, feel about this story?"

Leporello: The Giving Tree VS The Giving Human
Everyone creates a Leporello, a small double-sided book with two stories: One story is about the book they read with the title "The Giving Tree", and the students are encouraged to draw the main scenes on the pages.In the second story, children have the possibility to tell an alternative story with the title "The Giving Human".Students can reflect on these guiding questions: "What can we do for nature?What can we give?" and they can draw some ideas on the other pages.At the end, children show their Leporello and share what they have done.
Children have to think of some solutions in order to improve the world and prevent exploitation.It is necessary to think differently to find alternatives and solutions to problems.
Children can find out a lot of information about the story just by looking at the cover.They are active participants and not only passive listeners of the story.

Conversation about the characters and their actions is necessary in order to reflect on the message of this story. Keep in mind that it is important to listen to what children think without judgment.
It's important to try to identify with each character and imagine why this character did a certain thing instead of another.Talking about feelings and emotions is challenging but necessary to develop empathy.We may have different opinions, but it is important to accept them, so this is why the dialogic part is so relevant.

Objectives
At the end of the lesson students will have shared and discussed their thoughts on sustainable ways of living.They will have had the opportunity to imagine human or other earthlings' responses and perspectives on the various choices and changes of life represented in the picturebook.by Yukiko Noritake

FORÊT DES FRÈRES
The book presents the parallel stories of two brothers, who each inherit half of the same forest.They both decide to settle down there, but from the beginning, they take two different roads... Literary activity by Giulia Silvestrini (Università degli Studi di Padova)

INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION
Each student should write which story they prefer and why.Then, the teacher collects the replies, reads them to the class and starts to discuss them, respecting everyone's opinions.
Teaching tips: the teacher should ensure that everyone works on their own, because the students can sometimes be too influenced by one another, risking that they always share the same ideas and forget to reflect on their own.

DIALOGUE
The teacher asks questions or replies to answers strictly regarding the storyline, without going into the reflective part.
Teaching tips: the teacher can also let the students create questions and share them with the class.In this way, the students will be more interested and will improve their dialogical skills.

READING
Following a discussion about the cover, the teacher reads and shows everyone the picturebook.
Teaching tips: the teacher should read using expressive techniques to keep the students' interest and attention high.Each page has only a few words, so the book can be explored as a wordless picturebook.

GALLERY WALK
The students, divided into small groups, should write answers to specific questions, focusing more on the details of the story, and should read what other groups have already said.
Teaching tips: the teacher should organise the gallery walk with the doublespreads and, at the end, discuss the replies with the class.This activity helps the students to improve their communication skills and their imaginative dimension.

WRITING
Each small group has to write the story from the point of view of one character (be it one of the brothers, another human, or an animal or plant).
Teaching tips: the teacher can make this activity more challenging, making the students choose a character from the story that they don't like.In this way, they can improve their narrative skills, walking in the shoes of someone else.

LIFE ON LAND
The teacher asks each student to choose one picture from the story that, in their opinion, can represent the Life on Land Goal.
Teaching tips: the teacher should let everyone go through the pages individually and reflect.This activity helps the students to connect the picture book with the 15th SDG.
The literary activity is designed for 9-10 year old students and it is connected to the 15th SDG Life on Land.The entire activity takes two/three hours to complete.
The third infographic (figure 3) revolves around the sustainability of natural resources used by humans.It engages with SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) and SDG 14 (life below water) through its focus on the discovery, availability, and sustainable use of water.The picturebook and the activities developed for classroom use help encourage children to read the story ecocritically and to develop deeper awareness about water as a resource at risk.

Title
The Meaning of Water

The meaning of water
When the children come back from the outdoor exploration, the teacher asks them to do some watercolor painting, underlining why they are using water for it.The teacher asks them to paint what they have seen or experienced with water.

Gallery walk
The teacher hangs up the watercolor paintings of the children in their classroom and asks them to walk through, watch, and think.They should focus on what the meaning of water is to them and write a few keywords on a post-it.

Reading of the book
After a short introduction of some key-words relevant to the story, the teacher reads aloud the picturebook On a magical do-nothing day by Beatrice Alemagna.The teacher should stop and show the picturebook to the children every second page.

Writing to water for water about water
Thinking about all the work done about water, the children should be encouraged to write: It can be a letter, a poem, or whatever they feel to be appropriate.

The project
This project includes all the following activities, based on the reading out loud of the picturebook On a magical do-nothing day by Beatrice Alemagna.SDGs: 6:Clean water and sanitation, 14:Life below water Time: 4-5 hours Age: 7-8 years old Debora Carolo -Università degli Studi di Padova

Outdoor exploration time
During a break or a walk outside, the children should be encouraged to look for things with water and keep them in mind for later.

Intro to SDGs and WATER
The teacher and the pupils should watch a video together about SDGs and then go through the goals, focusing on the ones linked to water.
In climate literacy education it is important "to foster an appreciation of the interconnectedness of social and environmental justice, encouraging more contemplative behaviour toward each other, other species, and the environment" (Young, 2018, p. 6, our italics).Whereas the first three infographics are more related to the environmental component of the interconnectedness mentioned by Young, the fourth and fifth infographics focus on the social side of the spectrum.
Addressing the SDG 10 (reduced inequalities), these infographics intend to develop children's ecocritical thinking through reflection about the many people who need to migrate, the reasons for migrations, the risks migrants encounter, and their feelings.

Title
A silent book about courage, loss and hope

Core Text
Migrants (2020) by Issa Watanabe

Supporting Texts
United Nations SDG 10

Climate Literacy Terms
Collective Action, Social Justice, Migrants

Objectives
At the end of the lesson students will have been able to reflect about the social and environmental inequalities experienced by migrants.Through drawing, speaking, or writing, students learn about the potential of wordless picturebooks to expose and overcome linguistic inequalities.In this way everyone can express their opinion and their meaning of the story.

Materials and Resources
They can also look at the book or at their story and write it down.
To go deeper into their learning you can ask the children to invent a personal new story about migration.
They have to draw it without using words.If they need it, they can use the previous works to get inspiration.
For the last step you can build a book with the stories of all the children in the class.You can choose the title together and write down all the authors' names.You can then read it together with all the children, each one explaining his or her work.

Teacher tips
Teacher tips

Teacher tips
Teacher tips

Teacher tips
This book can be used to talk about the 10th goal of SDG (Reduce Inequalities).You can talk about inequalities during the reading, but also about this kind of book, which everyone can understand (Silent Book).In this case the teacher has to be a scaffolding for her students, in order to create an interactive and inclusive activity.
In a Silent Book every child can see different things according to their interpretations.Seeing their stories can be really interesting, but it's not an evaluation of the children.You have to consider this reading as an aesthetic work.Let the children work on their interpretations and meaningmaking.

In able to offer the children different possibilities, you should propose different options with different forms of expression (drawing, speaking, writing). In this way you can meet all the children's needs and offer them possibilities to express themselves.
This is another way to give the children a chance to express themselves.In this way they can be involved and be active participants in their own learning.
Important: there's not a right way and a wrong way.
During all these activities it is really important to have a meaningful dialogue with the children.In this way they can share and build their ideas together.For this activity it is fundamental that everyone has a chance to share their story with the whole class and be active participants in the lesson.

Objectives
At the end of the lesson students will have increased their awareness of migration, environmental and social injustices.Thanks to reading the book and it with the classmates, they will be able to question the knowledge and opinion regarding migrants that they had before the session.Pre-reading activities (7 min)

Materials and Resources
▪ Initial brainstoring based on questions (presented again at the end to see how children's ideas have changed) • Who do you think migrants are?
• Why do they flee from their own country?What leads them to emigrate?
• How do you think they feel?What emotions and feelings do they experience?
• Do you think that migrants are people who want to travel and enjoy changing countries?Or do you think that migrants are poor people who are running away from difficult situations and have to face terrible journeys?

First moment
• silence while the teacher slowly flips through the pages of the book • musical background of the stormy sea is played, in order to allow children to have a 360-degree experience, combining the sense of listening with that of sight

Second reading
• children are able to speak by raising their hands, discussing, asking questions and making contributions, highlighting what they observe and asking for clarifications • the teacher guides the discussion with stimulating questions: • What do you notice here?
• What has changed from this page to this page?
• What is the plot of the story?
• What happened in this scene?
• What is the global message?• Who do you think migrants are?
• Why do they flee from their own country?What leads them to emigrate?
• How do you think they feel?What emotions and feelings do they experience?
• Do you think that migrants are people who want to travel and enjoy changing countries?Or do you think that migrants are poor people who are running away from difficult situations and have to face terrible journeys?
Post-reading activities (7 min) → Pre-reading activities Methods that activate the knowledge background, that introduce the topic, that motivate the students for the subsequent activities and that direct attention to the main theme through stimulating questions.

→ During-reading activities
Methods such as silent reading and guided reading, two opposing techniques but useful for different purposes and for carefully studying the book.
During-reading activities (30 min) During-reading activities (30 min) A focus on the different symbols sea boundaries an enemy-friend, as the only escape route undertaken with hope, which however irremediably brings danger and death with it barriers, frontiers, walls and obstacles to overcome; geographical, physical and imaginary ones built by people who exclude colors death suitcase ibis The dress worn by death and the trees varies according to the situation: • when the animals are traveling, the plants are without leaves and flowers are colored in black and white → feeling of despondency • at the end, the plants return full of colorful leaves and flowers → a feeling of hope and trust towards a new life spiritual and physical, represented as in the book The Duck, Death and the Tulip by Wolf Erlbruch past memories, place of origin link between life and death, connection between past and present • Final brainstorming based on questions (to compare with the initial ones)

→
Post-reading activities Methods such as discussion, dialogue and questioning to broaden children's knowledge and make them think about what they have just read.Theoretical framework ▪ Picture-book selected for storytelling "[It] needs to meet a range of criteria, such as its suitability and interest in terms of content, linguistic, conceptual and cultural accessibility and appropriacy, aesthetic appeal and its educational affordances for a particular group of children" (Ellis, G., & Mourão, S. (2021) Demystifying the read-aloud: Gail Ellis and Sandie Mourão discuss the role of reading picturebooks in early English language learning.Teaching Young Learners) ▪ Structure of the activities Subdivision of the work and organization of the times, project in 3 parts, albeit connected: Pre-reading activities, Duringreading activities and Post-reading activities.(Graves, F. M., & Fitzgerald, J. Chapter 5. Scaffolding Reading Experiences for Multilingual Classrooms)