Women’s Day lesson planKaty Muench

International Women’s Day – 8th of March Lesson planLevel: B1Aimed at Turkish students aged 16 and upWriting lesson (could easily be adapted for speaking (students make a presentation based on their findings) or reading by finding suitable texts about the topic)Materials: This word document, slideshow with images, whiteboard, A3 or larger paper, coloured pens (for posters), two youtube videos you may want to download in advance using http://keepvid.com

You can find all the images on a Google slideshow here: https://goo.gl/DH7IJ4

Pre lesson suggestions:

Clarify the use of “In favour of/Against” with topics relating to women’s rightsReview lack/excess(I suggest both of these because it is vocabulary that may be useful for this topic)Work on complex sentence structures (SAS Unit 1)Perhaps adapt the powerpoint: http://www.slideshare.net/hacersivil/sas-3-unit1extendingsentencesppt-58006715or expand upon it (Thank you Hacer for uploading this)

If you’ve already covered the material from unit 1, perhaps at some point in this lesson, project the structure, give some keys words and provide some models of sentences. Eg:Educated women are more successfulGirls who go to university are more successfulIt is difficult for girls in developing countries to go to university

Lesson aims:

Raising awareness about women’s issues during the week of International Women’s Day Practicing research skills using internet sources in both Turkish and English Increasing vocabulary (no set list, but the words that are necessary to complete the task) Making complex sentences based on both fact and opinion

Lesson plan:

Show these pictures (use the slideshow https://goo.gl/DH7IJ4) and ask students what’s going on/elicit discussion. Get them to talk to a partner and then do whole class feedback.

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Women’s Day lesson planKaty Muench

Ask students to translate these and discuss their ideas about the topics. There’s a whole series of images like this here: https://www.facebook.com/devrimcii.kadinlar/posts/484105815130375?pnref=storyStudents can translate and maybe make a few extras (verbally or on the board)

Sabiah Gokcen , the first Turkish female pilot Guler Sabanci, chairwoman of Sabanci Holding

What did all these pictures have in common? (Women, women’s issues, strong women, gender roles)

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Women’s Day lesson planKaty Muench

Why am I showing these? (Women’s Day and an important issue anyway!)

What is women’s day and what’s it for? Elicit their ideas. Show these pictures: Is this what women’s day is about?

Some facts about women’s day: It started in 1909 in New York. In many countries, it’s a public holiday.(In China, it’s a holiday only for women!) In many countries, it’s traditional for men to give their female colleagues/classmates/family members flowers or gifts. Every year, it has a different theme. This year it’s “Step it up for gender equality”.

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Women’s Day lesson planKaty Muench

Show this photo of Malala zoomed in to show only eyes

Who do they think she is? Where is she from? What’s her name? They should guess (if they don’t know already)

Zoom out to show whole picture. Elicit more information.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cug1-eTOVSk

Show the “He Named me Malala” trailer

Has anyone seen the film or read the book? (If your lesson is on Tuesday, tell them they can watch Benim Adım Malala on Nat Geo People, Nat Geo Wild, and Foxlife on March 8 at 8pm)

What did Malala do? What has she done? (Elicit if anyone knows, or share some of this information otherwise) – Perhaps just write key vocabulary on the board and get students to construct the sentences in pairs. (Blog BBC Taliban allow shoot Birmingham promote Nobel film)

She used to write a blog for the BBC about her life in Pakistan under Taliban rule The Taliban don’t allow girls to get an education but she continued to go to school The Taliban shot her in the head when she was on the school bus She went to Birmingham, England for healthcare. She can’t go back to Pakistan because the Taliban want to kill her. She promotes education for girls She won the Nobel peace prize in 2014 On her 16th birthday, she spoke at the United Nations She opened a school for Syrian girls in Lebanon

Ask if they know any films about Turkish women. Then show the following trailer(It’s Mustang, a Turkish film that was nominated for the Oscar for best foreign film):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABNB3zw5BAoDiscuss the clip – has anyone seen the film? What issues does it cover? Elicit or provide necessary vocabulary (forces marriage, arranged marriage, expectations…)

Put students into small groups (2 or 3) – give each group a topic to research

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Women’s Day lesson planKaty Muench

An inspirational woman or women of their choice – if they can’t think of any, perhaps suggest Benazir Bhutto, Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks, Anne Frank, the Saturday mothers…

Woman and family life Women’s clothes Crimes against women Turkish laws relating to women

(All of these topics can be about Turkey or the world in general – students can interpret the topic how they like)

Students work together to produce a poster. They should use the internet to research, but NOT just copy from Wikipedia. Tell them to find the most interesting and relevant information and create their own sentences (using conditionals, relative clauses, coordinators, noun clauses or whatever they need). Go back to the simple sentences about Malala and make them more complex – leave these up on the screen to act as a model.

Give groups some time to research and plan, before giving the materials. Provide them with A3 paper and coloured pens.

Their posters should include both FACTS based on research as well as opinion. Remind them of how to distance themselves from opinions by using passive tense.

Monitor and help where necessary. Towards the end of the lesson, tell groups to stick their posters up around the room, and go and read the other posters.

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