Lesson 6: Overfishing

 Lesson Plan

Tuning In

• Facilitate a discussion with the students about the types of foods they eat regularly at home. Remind the students that food is sourced from plants and animals. Fruits and vegetables are grown on large farms, while animals are usually bred specifically for the human food market. Seafood (such as fish, prawns and squid) is often sourced directly from the ocean.
• Ask the students whether or not they eat fish at home, and how frequently. Encourage the students to suggest how seafood finds its way from the ocean, to the supermarket, to our plates.

Teacher Instruction

• Watch the Will the Ocean Ever Run Out of Fish? video on YouTube. At the end of the video, ask the students:
  • How are modern commercial fishing methods different to more traditional methods?
  • What happens when fish are caught before they have an opportunity to reproduce?
  • How are ocean ecosystems affected by commercial fishing nets?
• Project the Overfishing Infographic Poster on the board. Encourage the students to quietly examine the graphics, facts and statistics on the poster. Alternatively, students could discuss the poster in pairs. After a few minutes, facilitate a discussion about the issue of overfishing. Ask the students:
  • What does this poster tell us about how humans are currently using fish as a food source?
  • What might happen if humans continue to use fish in this way?
  • Which of the facts on the poster did you find the most surprising? Why?
• As a class, create a summary sentence or paragraph which explains why overfishing is a significant environmental issue in the 21st century.

Guided/Independent Learning

• Remind the students of the role that governments can play in regulating how, when, where and how much fishing occurs in the nation’s oceans and waterways. Explain that, if properly enforced, these restrictions can help overfished species to repopulate.
• As a class, brainstorm and list some of the reasons why greater restrictions should be placed upon commercial fishing practices. Using these ideas as inspiration, ask the students to write a persuasive letter to an appropriate government minister or official which outlines the dangers of overfishing. In their letter, students should explain three reasons why overfishing is an unsustainable practice which must be stopped.
• Monitor and support the students as they plan and write their persuasive letters. The students may wish to use the Persuasive Text Planning Template and the Persuasive Texts Writing Scaffold to assist them in planning and structuring their writing.

Wrapping Up

• Encourage more confident students to share their persuasive letters with the rest of the class. If appropriate, send the students’ letters to the government official responsible for agriculture in your country.

 Differentiation

Extending Students

• Encourage more capable students to conduct independent research into overfishing to assist them in writing their letters.

Supporting Students

• Allow students with lower literacy levels to jointly construct a letter in a small group with the support of a teacher or teacher aide.

 Assessment Strategies

Suggested Assessment Strategies

• used strategic whole class or individual questioning
• observed student participation during learning activities
• recorded student progress on a checklist
• annotated student work samples
• collected and reviewed student work samples
• facilitated whole class or peer feedback sessions
• encouraged student self-reflection
• administered formal assessment tasks.

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