Age: 11-12 years

Duration: 80 min

Objectives

• Identify causative and passive structures inside authentic climate-policy sentences.
• Rewrite active statements into formal academic syntax without losing meaning.
• Discuss how syntax choices shift tone from casual to official.

Vocab

• catastrophic: "Scientists warned of catastrophic flooding if emissions continue."
• causative: "A causative verb shows one thing makes another happen."
• municipal: "The municipal council passed a new recycling rule."
• emissions: "The city set a target to cut carbon emissions by half."

Warm-up (5min)

Project a headline: "City Forces Factories to Cut Emissions." Ask: "Who is doing the action? Who receives it?" Students underline the actor in one color, the receiver in another. Introduce the term causative on the board with a simple diagram: Actor → makes → Receiver → do action.

Main Activity (65min): "Climate Change Syntax"

"Climate Syntax Lab" — Round 1: Read a short climate-policy brief (~300 words) and highlight every sentence that uses "make," "have," "is/are + past participle." Round 2: Structure sort — pairs place 8 sentence strips into two columns: Causative vs Passive, then justify one borderline case aloud. Round 3: Transformation drill — rewrite 6 casual statements ("The mayor told companies to recycle") into formal academic syntax ("Companies were required to recycle"). Round 4: Tone comparison — read the casual and formal versions back to back; class votes which sounds more "report-like" and explains why. Round 5: Mini-build — each student writes 3 formal sentences about a real environmental issue using at least one causative and one passive form. Collect the syntax sheets as the first G6 grammar-portfolio artifact.

Wrap-up (10min)

Gallery walk: post syntax sheets; students add a sticky note to one sentence they think sounds most "academic." Exit ticket: "One sentence I upgraded today was ___ → ___ ."

Teacher Tips

• G6 opens the KET completion track — frame syntax as "sounding like a real report," not memorizing rules.
• Keep climate content neutral and factual; the focus is grammar, not debate.
• Bridge from G5 argumentative essays — reuse their evidence sentences as raw material to transform.