| LESSON OVERVIEW
The main objectives of this ESL lesson on parenting are to:
- talk about family structures and shared parenting;
- practise parenting-related vocabulary;
- watch and discuss a video about ‘mommunes’.
With this lesson, students discuss family structures, explore vocabulary to talk about parenting (e.g. child support, lean on, afford childcare, etc.) and discuss challenges different parents might have. They watch a video about ‘mommunes’ (a household consisting of single mothers and their children) and discuss their benefits. Students also read issues that might happen in a mommune and discuss how to deal with them.
B2 / Upper Intermediate60 minStandard LessonPremium Plan
WARM-UP AND DISCUSSION
This ESL lesson on parenting begins with a warm-up where students look at pictures of different kinds of families. They read the definitions of extended family, nuclear family and single-parent family and discuss questions about family and its changes over time. After that, students match the halves of sentences about childcare and family support dynamics. In the task, you can explore vocabulary by asking them to identify the types of families in each sentence and find phrases that correspond to definitions (e.g. offer or give help – provide support, etc.). Then, they choose statements and add a comment starting with ‘However’. Next, students discuss what challenges different family structures might have.
VIDEO AND MORE DISCUSSION
At this point in the ESL lesson on parenting, students guess what ‘mommunes’ might be. Then, they watch the first part of a video about the topic and check their ideas. After that, they watch the second part of the video and complete sentences about a single mother seeking support to share living arrangements. Next, students finish sentences about mommunes with their own ideas. Following that, they watch the last part of the video and check their answers. Afterwards, students discuss questions about mommunes and their potential benefits. Then, they discuss what problems families in mommunes might have when it comes to different areas (e.g. dating, respecting personal space, leaving the mommune, etc.). Finally, students read challenging situations that might happen in a mommune. They discuss questions about how to deal with the situations and how potential members of a mommune could prevent them from happening in their future household.
HOMEWORK/REVISION
This lesson plan also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students put words in order to create questions. Then, they use phrases related to parenting to answer the questions. The task is available in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. You can print it and hand it out to your students. It’s also included in the e-lesson plan.
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Great lesson!! Very original!
Thank you for your feedback! Happy you liked it 🙂
Great lesson!! Its a topic of public interest and the vocabulary ir very useful!!!
Thank you for this great comment, Caroline! We’re happy you found this lesson engaging and useful! 🙂
wow, a lesson attacking traditional family structure? is this some kind of joke?
let’s have a glowing biographical lesson about Marx next
Wow, you must be a joy to have as a teacher.
A glowing biographical lesson on Marx sounds great! Great suggestion, Andrew!!
Thank you for shining a light on the topic of single moms and how they can work together to have a better quality of life. I know it can be tough, being one myself!
Thank you so much for your comment, Violet! We’re happy the topic resonated with you on such a deep personal level. I’m a single mom myself and it might have been one of the reasons this video caught my eye and made me want to explore it in more detail 🙂