| LESSON OVERVIEW
With this lesson plan, students talk about gender stereotypes, watch a video and discuss the factors driving the gender pay gap. They also reflect on solutions to this problem and discover some expressions with the word root.
DISCUSSION & EXPRESSIONS WITH ROOT
To start with, students look at two photos showing a little girl and boy playing and discuss what is traditionally expected of boys and girls. They focus on multiple aspects, such as personality, behaviour, likes and dislikes, future career choices, etc. Next, students analyse eight half-phrases related to the topic of gender equality and match them with their corresponding halves (maternity leave, emulate role models, pursue a career). They read the definition of gender pay gap, look at the phrases from the previous exercise and brainstorm possible social and economic factors in the gender pay gap. After that, students analyse seven given factors contributing to the problem (e.g. upbringing, social bias, education) and engage in a discussion. The following task familiarises students with seven expressions with the word root. Students discover them completing seven gapped sentences with the words given in a box (e.g. root sth out, be the root cause).
LISTENING COMPREHENSION
Before students watch a video about gender pay gap in Iceland, they take another look at the expressions from the previous exercise and predict which of them they expect to hear in the video and why. They watch it for the first time and relate to its content by discussing three given questions. The second listening activity focuses on listening for more detailed information. Students need to explain the significance of five specific elements mentioned by the speakers in the video. The listening practice is followed by an in-depth discussion about the ideas presented in the video with students sharing their thoughts. A good idea to consolidate the vocabulary at the end of this lesson (or alternatively, at the beginning of the next one) is a vocabulary revision game. You read out eight given definitions and students have to guess the corresponding words they learnt earlier in the lesson (e.g. copy someone – emulate). You might even want to make it a competition!
WORKSHEETS
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Thanks for the great lesson plan. I used it twice today and will be able to use it a few more times this week. I also added a couple of slides with gender pay gap statistics for the country where I teach. This lead to some great discussions! Truly engaging C1-C2 grammar lessons can be hard to find so I really appreciate this one. The section on expressions with “root” was a surprising hit!
Thank you very much for your feedback:) It’s great to know that students enjoy our lessons and that the topics we pick are so engaging.
What a great lesson plan. Plus an amazing video. I personally love the economist, it always works great in class. Thank you guys!
Thanks, Christiane. And I agree, the video is amazing!
This is a terrifc lesson!! I used in 6 different sessions and it was great! The topic sparked so much discussion, I never had to worry about running out of the class material! It would be fantastic to see more videos from The Economist!
I also really liked the little revision activity at the end of the session as it gave the students a chance to re-cap on the vocab introduced in the lesson. Very grateful for this one, it electrified all my students!
Thanks for your wonderful feedback 🙂 I’m glad the sessions were a success!
Some revision is always useful, so I’m happy to include such tasks in the lesson plans if possible.
The Economist does make fantastic videos and I’m sure we’ll use more of them in the future.
Excellent classes I really like topics about feminism, pay gap and patriarchy 🙂
Thanks, Barbara!