This lesson plan teaches journalists how to find, report and write climate change stories about coastal communities, starting with the people affected.
It’s based on two articles written by climate journalist Rafiqul Islam Montu in which he focused on crafting compelling stories and the impact on communities. We recommend trainers read both articles before adapting this lesson plan for your own needs.
Introduction
This lesson outline is designed to help reporters tell climate stories from the ground up. It moves from finding story ideas, identifying the human impact, building a network of sources, and writing and following up stories. Rafiqul’s examples come from coastal Bangladesh, but the approach works for any community living with erosion, flooding, storms, rising salinity or displacement. Trainers are encouraged to adapt the lesson plan by replacing the scenarios set out below with local examples.
Sessions timetable
- 09:00–10:00 – Session 1: Starting with your own questions
- Aims: To understand why local journalists are well placed to find climate stories, and why a strong story idea matters as much as the story itself.
- Presentation: Introduce Rafiqul’s route into climate journalism. As a boy in the coastal district of Barguna, he grew up beside the rivers, walked about three kilometres to school and wondered why those rivers were changing. Those questions became his stories. Explain that the local patch is a goldmine of climate stories, that staying close to the ground produces ideas, and that a journalist with plenty of good ideas is a stronger journalist.
- Activity: Working alone, participants spend 10 minutes listing five things that have changed in their area – a river, farmland, fish catches, a village, the shoreline – and the question each change raises. In pairs, they choose the strongest question and explain why readers would care.
- Discussion: Which questions can be answered by talking to people, and which need data or scientific evidence? Why do local journalists so often overlook stories on their own doorstep?
- 10:00–11:00 – Session 2: Linking events to evidence
- Aims: To learn how to turn an isolated event into a climate story using evidence, and to explain the science in plain language.
- Presentation: When an embankment collapses, a tidal surge hits, or a cyclone strikes, local journalists are often among the first on the scene. Each can be reported as a single event. Framing it as a climate story needs evidence. Explain Rafiqul’s point that climate journalism is also science journalism: the reporter builds a bridge between scientific information, the voices of people on the ground and the insights of local journalists. Climate journalism is not about arbitrary explanations. Point participants to the MHM climate change glossary and the guide to climate change language.
- Activity: In groups, participants read a short report of a single event, such as a flood, an erosion collapse or a cyclone. They list the evidence they would need to support a climate link (scientific data, an expert, long-term local records, comparison with earlier years) and who they would approach for each. Each group then rewrites one technical sentence from a scientific source in plain language for a general reader.
- Discussion: Where is the line between reporting an event and claiming it was caused by climate change? Who can verify the link? How do you simplify a scientific finding without losing accuracy?
- 11:00–11:15 – Break
- 11:15–12:45 – Session 3: Finding the human impact
- Aims: To use the main areas of human impact to generate story ideas, with front-line communities at the centre.
- Presentation: Walk through the areas Rafiqul suggests as sources of stories: human rights (access to food, education and healthcare), the frequency of natural disasters, climate-driven changes (rivers drying up, forests disappearing, villages becoming uninhabitable), displacement, changing occupations, economic crisis and debt, adaptation efforts, stories of solutions, and the loss of biodiversity. Use his example of a former shrimp farm owner who now earns a living by operating a boat. Stress that women, children and minority groups are often hit first and hardest but rarely lead the coverage, and that a gender perspective is essential.
- Activity: In groups, participants are given a community profile (use a local one, or the coastal village scenario in the handouts) and three impact areas. They produce five story ideas, noting who they would speak to, what evidence they would need and what the reader would learn. Each group pitches its best idea in 60 seconds.
- Discussion: Whose voices are missing from the pitches? Why do women, children and minorities so rarely feature? How can you report solutions without playing down the crisis?
- 12:45–13:45 – Lunch
- 13:45–15:00 – Session 4: Going to the people
- Aims: To plan fieldwork and build a network of sources that supports reporting, including when travel is not possible.
- Presentation: Explain Rafiqul’s belief that stories from the ground are the real stories, and that people’s own words carry the suffering, emotion, laughter and tears. There is no substitute for field visits. Introduce his five-tier network: grassroots professionals, local communities, local journalists, local public representatives, and government officials. He used it to produce stories from home during the Covid-19 pandemic. Discuss the barriers to reaching remote places. One example is Dublar Char in Bagerhat, where reporters need permission from the Forest Department and there is no established transport.
- Activity: In two parts. First, participants map their own five-tier network for a community they could cover and mark the gaps. Second, in pairs, one plays a displaced farmer or fisher (role cards provided) and the other is the reporter. The reporter has 10 minutes to draw out the human story, strong quotes and the evidence trail. Observers note which questions produced the best answers.
- Discussion: How do you reach places with no road or boat? How do you keep your network alive between visits? Rafiqul describes a 60-year-old islander who wept as he spoke of losing his family’s ancestral home. How should a reporter respond in that moment?
- 15:00–15:15 – Break
- 15:15–16:15 – Session 5: Writing the story and planning the follow-up
- Aims: To write a climate story with a human voice at its centre, and to plan a follow-up.
- Presentation: Demonstrate a simple structure: open with a person and what has changed, give the evidence that links it to climate, then say what is being done. Remind participants of the six essential questions, and show how evidence answers the Why and How. Explain follow-ups. Rafiqul returns to the same islands, villages and individuals over time to document change, and the follow-ups often lead to new stories and help bring them to policymakers.
- Activity: Using notes from the role-play, participants write a 300-word story with a human voice at the centre, a line of evidence for the climate link and a note on what is being done. They then write a short follow-up plan: who or where they would revisit, when, and what they would look for.
- Discussion: Does opening with a person strengthen a story or narrow it? How do you stop emotion overwhelming the evidence? What would a follow-up add?
- 16:15–17:00 – Session 6: Peer review and next steps
- Aims: To evaluate stories against the lesson’s criteria and consider how journalists can widen coverage by working together.
- Presentation: Brief participants on giving constructive feedback using a checklist. Is there a human voice? Is the climate link supported by evidence? Is the science in plain language? Is a front-line group represented? Is there a solutions or adaptation angle? Is a follow-up in view? Then introduce the Coastal Journalism Network Rafiqul founded because no single reporter can cover every story and few journalists had training in this field. It runs workshops and helps colleagues plan and write stories.
- Activity: Participants swap stories. The reviewer ticks off the checklist and notes one strength and one improvement. As a whole group, they then list places in their region that rarely or never get covered and agree who might visit each.
- Discussion: Which element was most often missing? How could working as a network help you cover more places?
Assignment
Choose a community in your area that is affected by climate change and has had little coverage. Use your network map from Session 4 to plan your reporting. Visit if you can, or interview people by phone or video. Write a 400-word story that puts a human voice at the centre, supports the climate link with evidence, and says what is being done. Add a short plan for a follow-up story.
Materials needed
- Notebooks and pens.
- Handouts of the two MHM articles by Rafiqul Islam Montu (links below).
- Printed or digital maps of the local area.
- Short news reports of single climate-related events (a flood, erosion or a cyclone) for Session 2.
- Role cards for Session 4 (displaced farmer, fisher, former business owner).
- Whiteboard or flip chart for brainstorming.
- Smartphones or recording devices for role-play interviews, used with participants’ agreement.
- The MHM climate change glossary and language guide (links below).
Assessment
- Participation: Engagement in the pitches, role-play and group discussions.
- Performance: Ability to link an event to evidence, find story ideas through the areas of human impact, and put people’s voices at the centre of a story.
- Accuracy: Ensuring quotes are accurate, claims are attributed, the climate link is supported by evidence and the people featured are treated with dignity.
Summary
This lesson plan gives participants a practical route into climate and coastal reporting. By moving from their own questions to evidence, human impact, fieldwork and follow-ups, they learn that the strongest climate stories begin with the people living through the change. Visiting those people, backing every claim with evidence and returning over time are the habits that turn a single report into lasting coverage.
Related articles
Climate and coastal journalism – crafting compelling stories
Climate and coastal journalism – the impact on communities
Covering climate change
Climate change – language
Climate change glossary
