Climate Change Reading Comprehension Article

- Grades
- Grades 8–10, Middle School, High School
- File type
- Multiple File Types
- Subject
- Science, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Earth Sciences
- Topic
- climate, change
- Resource types
- Worksheets & Printables, Worksheets
- Standards
- CCSS.RI.8.1
About this resource
What's inside this resource
Climate Change: The Reality and Danger - A Science Reading Article - Disciplinary Literacy - Grade 8 and Up.
This resource is suitable for high school students as well as strong middle-school students. Tackle literacy and science by having your students read and answer questions from a scientific article. Questions include knowledge (direct from the paper), thinking, connecting and open-ended varieties. There are also video extension questions (optional) that the students can access via a URL or a QR code.
No prep, no formatting, no issues. Simply download, print (or upload to your class site) and you're all set.
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This resource is fully editable for your convenience.
This resource covers the following topics:
- What is Climate?
- Global temperature—how it’s measured
- What’s happening with the climate now? Why are we concerned about it?
- Why are we so concerned about 1.4 degrees F?
- What can we do to help?
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The Problem You Face - Not having the time to properly teach scientific literacy (disciplinary literacy) or improve your students reading comprehension and analysis skills.
The Solution
This fully editable, NO PREP reading comprehension article is composed of relevant, applicable, and engaging reading activities which can be used to:
• introduce your topic
• improve your students reading comprehension and scientific literacy skills
• improve your students' analysis skills
• provide an extension activity to students who move at a faster pace
• provide extra credit to students in need
• measure your students' literacy skills
Furthermore, this resource works very well as an emergency substitute plan as it will keep your students on task and focused while you are away.
This resource will take your students between 50-75 minutes to complete and includes some open-ended questions. An answer key is also included for your reference.
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You might also be interested in the following individual reading comprehension articles:
Health:
• The Common Cold
• The Flu
• Exercise and its Importance for Health
• Stem Cell Therapy: The Future of Medicine?
• Concussions
• Poliomyelitis - Polio
• Smallpox
• The Measles
• Genetics and Gene Therapy
• Heart Diseases
• Cancer
• The Effects of Caffeine
• Down syndrome
• HIV/AIDS - Informing the Public and Dispelling the Misconceptions
• The Effect of Stress on the Brain
• The Effect of Sugar on the Body
• Whooping Cough
• Asthma and Asthma Attacks
• The Immune System
• Farming: Organic vs. Conventional
• The Dangers of Smoking
• Parkinson’s Disease
• Protective Equipment - Keeping you safe
• Fats
• Tinnitus – Ringing in the Ears
• Cystic Fibrosis
• The Effects Of Binge Drinking On Teenagers
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Painkillers
• Diabetes
• Radioactivity
• Scarring
• Allergies
• Carbohydrates, Lipids, and Health
Earth and Space:
• The Northern and Southern Lights
• The Limitations of Space Travel
• Why is the Sky Blue? An application of light waves
• Stars - The Element Factories of the Universe
• Solar and Lunar Eclipses
• The Different Types of Clouds
• How Weather Works
• Natural Disasters
• Thunderstorms
• Fossils
• Geologic Time
• Watersheds
• Hurricanes
Energy:
• Fossil Fuels
• Nuclear Energy: Fission and Fusion
• Hydroelectric Energy Production
• Solar Energy Production
• Wind Energy Production
• Renewable Energy Production
• Hydraulic Fracturing - Fracking
• Biofuels - Food or Fuel?
• Electric House
• Energy Use and Conservation
Physics:
• Magnets and Electromagnets
• Roller Coasters - History, Design, and Function
• How Do Boats Float?
• Optical Phenomena
• The Effects of Everyday Forces
• Hydraulics
• Hot-Air Balloons
• Simple Machines
• Automobile Safety
Chemistry:
• The Chemistry of Explosions
• Plastics: A Marvel Of Innovation
• The Chemistry of Paint
• Water Softeners and Hard Water
• Cleaning up Acid Spills
• The Accumulation of Plastic in the Ocean
• Chemistry of Cooking
• Chemistry of Cosmetics
• Blood Analysis and Forensics
• Radioactivity
• Desalination for Drinking Water
• Rust-Proofing
Biology:
• Fermentation and Food
• DNA Paternity Tests
• Laser Eye Surgery
• Physical Adaptations
• Muscle Growth
• Genetically Modified Organisms
• Mosquitoes And The Diseases They Spread
• Twins
• GERD and Acid Reflux - A Digestive System Disease
• Bats – Misconceptions, Importance, and Facts
• Superbugs - The Super Villains of Modern Medicine
• Heart Attack and Stroke
• Why Leaves Change Color In The Fall
Ecology and the Environment:
• Invasive Species
• Ecosystems
• Pesticides
• The Importance of Bees
• Coral Reef Ecosystems and their Future
• Climate Change
• Hydraulic Fracturing - Fracking
• Farming: Organic vs. Conventional
• Oil Spills and Their Consequences
• Bioaccumulation and Biomagnification
• RuBisCO - Earth's Most Important Protein
• Symbiotic relationships between plants and insects
• Smog - Its Causes and Dangers
• Ocean Acidification
• Pollution Control Devices
• Tap vs Bottled Water
• Predator Prey Relationships
• Greenhouse Effect
Natural Disasters:
• Volcanoes: The Benefits and Devastation
• Earthquakes Part 1
• Earthquakes Part 2
• Tsunamis
• How the Dinosaurs Died
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Each summary is rich with age appropriate content (grades 8 and up) and is 2.5-3 pages long (13-font). Following each is a list of 8-13 questions along with the answer key, which will help guide your students understanding.
How this product will help your students:
- Improve their scientific and disciplinary literacy skills
- Improve their reading comprehension and scientific knowledge
- Give them insights into important scientific concepts
- Provide an extension activity for your faster moving/more gifted students
How this product will help you:
- Allow you to meet the NGSS, TEKS and Common Core Standards
- Provide you with a concise introduction to your topic
- Provide you with an engaging and easy to leave substitute plan which will keep your students engaged and on task
- Prove you a means of measuring your students literacy skills
We don't spend enough time teaching scientific literacy to our students. This is either because we don't have the resources to do so effectively or we don't have the time. However, teaching our students to become scientifically literate is vital if we want them to succeed in life. We need them to know about the world they live in and about the issues they face. Even issues as simple as the common cold are misunderstood and can lead to the misuse of antibacterial drugs eventually rendering them ineffective.
It can be used as a tool in your teaching arsenal on a regular basis, an extension activity for your faster learners, left for a substitute in an emergency or planned absence or as an extra bit of information for a topic.
In the classroom
Teaching tips & learning objectives
Learning objectives
Explain the difference between weather, climate, and long-term natural climate cycles.
Describe how average global temperature is measured and why current warming is attributed to human activity.
Identify the main anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide emissions and cite two specific consequences of continued warming.
Create a short persuasive commercial about climate change pitched to a specified audience (a grade-3 class).
Teaching tips
Assign the linked video (goo.gl/HfjFYl) before questions 7-9, since those three questions can only be answered from the video, not the article text.
Use the answer key to check questions 1-9 quickly, but treat questions 10-12 as open-response since the key itself notes 'answers will vary' for two of the three extension items.
Since the article is provided in both Word and PDF, use the Word file if you plan to trim or adapt sections before printing.
The extension task (a grade-3-level climate change commercial) works well as a follow-up presentation activity after the main comprehension questions.
Skills covered
Scientific text comprehension — students answer six questions directly from the article, citing facts such as measured CO2 levels and named emission sources.
Cross-source synthesis — students answer three additional questions using a linked video rather than the printed article.
Cause-and-effect reasoning — students explain why current warming is attributed to human activity rather than the natural cycles described earlier in the article.
Audience-aware persuasive communication — students script a short commercial about climate change pitched specifically to a grade-3 audience.
Good to know
Questions teachers ask about this resource
Why can't all twelve questions be answered from the article alone?
Questions 7 through 9 are tied to a separate linked video on sea ice and sea-level impacts, so students need to watch that video in addition to reading the article before completing the full question set.
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Curriculum
Standards, concepts & topics
Standards
- CCSS.RI.8.1 — Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Core concepts
Greenhouse effect
Anthropogenic climate change
Global temperature measurement
Carbon emissions
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