Ask students to consider their own relationship to where they live. Do students think there is a connection between community, traditions, and place? Do they think there is a connection between where we live and how we live?

Ask students to think about their own community. How long has their family lived in that community? What is the geography or the land like in their community? Has there been a moment in students' lives when they felt especially connected to their community? Or at odds with it? If students had to pick up and move their entire community to a new location, would the community be the same? What might be lost in the move?

Introduce this photo essay by telling students they will view a series of photographs depicting life on Shishmaref Island. The island, inhabited by the Native Alaska Inupiat people for over 400 years, is a three-mile-long, quarter-mile-wide, piece of land in Northwestern Alaska. Tell students that global warming impacts—including rising sea levels, increased storms, and melting permafrost, which is frozen ground located a few feet below soil surface—are destroying the island and forcing residents to move.

Direct students to view the photo essay, making note of the traditional activities depicted in the photos. "Traditional" means activities that have taken place throughout generations. Ask students to consider which traditions documented in the photo essay depend on the land, animals, or plants in the area. Which traditions, do they notice, are integrated into the community and strengthened by others' participation?

After viewing the photographs, lead a discussion with such questions as:

• Based on evidence from the photo essay, make a list of ways that residents of Shishmaref are affected by the environmental challenges of climate change.
• What are the main activities of the Inupiat people, including the youth, depicted in this essay? (Answers include: hunting, fishing, preparing and cooking food, recreational activities such as baseball, spear throwing, and watching videos.)
• Refer to your list of the traditional Inupiat activities depicted in the photographs. What might happen to residents if these activities no longer took place?
• What animal species do the Inupiat people rely on for subsistence?
• In 2002, residents of Shishmaref Island voted to relocate their community to the mainland. Yet, as of 2015, very little progress has been made. What might be some reasons for this lack of progress? (Answers: funding, coordination, and personal preference to stay).
• Photographer Ciril Jazbec writes that Shishmaref suffers from a generational divide. Younger members dream of leaving the island in search of opportunities to create a new life with access to jobs. What might life be like on Shishmaref with fewer young people? How might their departure affect the remaining residents? What could be lost?

Give students one of the following reflective writing prompts to demonstrate their understanding of the story. (Note for teachers: Just as quotes from a book or text are used to prove an analytical thought, students use the photo essay to justify their reasoning.)

• Photographer Ciril Jazbec explains on his website, "I want to show the world things such as gratitude, solidarity, and respect." Pick one photograph that you think depicts gratitude, solidarity, or respect. Write a paragraph describing how the photograph you chose symbolizes one of the three qualities. Include in your paragraph what gratitude, solidarity, or respect means to you. (CCSS.ELA.SL.11-12.1.c)
• National Geographic defines climate refugees as "people who must leave their homes and communities because of the effects of climate change and global warming." Visit the National Geographic website and read the encyclopedic entry about climate refugees. Name two other places in the world, cited in the entry, which are also experiencing sea level rise like Shishmaref Island. Describe the similarities and differences from these two places and Shishmaref Island. (NGSS.HS-ESS2-2)
• Due to high relocation costs, residents of Shishmaref Island have yet to move their village. Some of the younger residents are moving off-island to various cities and towns for better employment opportunities, while many elders remain, hoping to retain a traditional life. Former resident Richard Kuzuguk, in his early 50s, moved off-island to the Alaska city of Nome. He explained in an interview in the Huffington Post, "I have to consider my children's future…The best way I can do that right now is to move to Nome, get started there, introduce them to the Western lifestyle. They can always come back and learn the subsistence, traditional lifestyle." Imagine you were a youth living in Shishmaref. Would you want to stay on the island to remain close to the traditional lifestyle or would you want to move to another place that would have access to more education and work resources? Write a paragraph describing your decision using the photographs as evidence. (C3.D2.Geo.9.9-12)