Lesson Plan - Powering a Brighter Future

Build Background Knowledge

Before reading the article, have students take the five-question Prereading Quiz at junior.scholastic.com. The interactive quiz is self-scoring and will provide an explanation as students answer each question.

Preview Vocabulary

Use the online Skill Builder Words to Know to preteach the domain-specific terms acre, carbon dioxide, climate change, economy, fossil fuel, greenhouse gas, humanitarian, initiative, investment, kerosene, pandemic, renewable energy, sub-Saharan, sustainable, United Nations, vaccine, and wind turbine. Have students refer to the Skill Builder as they read.

Read the Article

Read the article aloud or have students read it independently or in pairs. As students read, direct them to underline or highlight details about why electricity is so important.

Answer Close-Reading Questions

Have students write their responses, or use the Close-Reading Questions to guide a discussion.

• How has the Light Library changed Derrick’s life? (Cause and Effect)
The Light Library changed Derrick’s life by allowing him to borrow solar lamps that help him do schoolwork at night. Before he had the lamps, complete darkness would set in around 6 p.m. each night. Now, Derrick’s grades have improved, and his teacher says he’s become one of the best readers in his school.

• What are the Sustainable Development Goals? How much progress has been made toward the one for electricity? (Key Details)
The Sustainable Development Goals are a set of 17 goals that the United Nations adopted in 2015 and hope to achieve by 2030. The goals include ensuring gender equality, combating climate change, ending hunger, improving girls’ access to education, and making sure everyone has access to electricity. Since 2010, more than 1 billion people have gained access to electricity, but 759 million still lacked access in 2019.

• Summarize the section “An Essential Resource.” (Summarizing)
About 75 percent of people who lack electricity live in sub-Saharan Africa. Most people without electricity worldwide are in rural areas. Without power, people often have to light their homes with kerosene lamps, which can be expensive, or candles, which can cause fires. Many people without electricity also use wood, coal, or charcoal for cooking and heating. The harmful fumes from burning such materials can cause health problems, and some families have to devote up to 10 hours a week to collecting materials to burn for fuel.

• What is renewable energy? How is it helping people around the world? (Domain-Specific Vocabulary)
Renewable energy is energy from a source that is constantly being restored, such as sunlight or wind. It’s cleaner than fossil fuels and produces little or no air pollution. In Kenya, the expansion of wind and solar power has helped millions of people gain access to electricity. In Malawi, a partnership between Power Africa and local solar companies has helped almost 58,000 families add solar panels to their homes.

• How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected efforts to expand access to electricity? (Cause and Effect)
In 2020, the pandemic slowed some of the recent progress in expanding access to electricity. Many people became unemployed or made less money, making it harder for them to afford power. Governments and companies also faced economic challenges, and some electrification projects were put on hold. Now some officials and groups are stepping up efforts to increase access to power because electricity is needed to refrigerate vaccines and to help test for and treat Covid-19.

• Choose one of the photos to analyze. What does it show? How does it support the article? (Text Features)
Responses will vary.

Watch a Video

Have students choose whether they want to watch “Powering Africa’s Response to Covid-19” or “Climate 101: Renewable Energy.” Then ask: How does the video support the article? What information does it reinforce? How does it add to your understanding?

Determine Causes and Effects

Use the Skill Builder Causes and Effects to help students analyze cause-and-effect relationships with a graphic organizer. After students complete it individually or in pairs, review responses as a class.

Read a Map

Review the information about latitude and longitude from the “Into the Storm” article on page 22. Then have students complete the map activity on page 11 independently or in pairs. Challenge fast finishers to write two other questions and swap with a classmate. Review answers as a class.

Assess Comprehension

Assign the 10-question Know the News quiz, available in PDF and interactive forms. You can also use Quiz Wizard to assess comprehension of this article and three others from the issue.