LESSON OVERVIEW

The lesson plan deals with a very up-to-date issue which raises a lot of doubts, questions and controversies, namely paternity leave. We created this lesson plan based on a video recommended by one of our members and we hope that it will be a great topic for you to touch on with your students-parents. It’s definitely a great debate option to use with your students around Father’s Day.

VOCABULARY

The lesson plan starts with an exercise which includes a list of chores that all of us do at home. First of all, students need to complete expressions with verbs connected with housework. Then, they have to work in pairs and tell their partner who is responsible for these chores in their house. One of the expressions there is taking care of kids. As an intro, you can talk more about it with your students before watching the video

VIDEO AND DISCUSSION

Before watching the video, students need to take a quiz. It includes 4 statements connected with paternity leave. Students need to choose options they feel are correct. After that, they need to watch the video and check their answers. Afterwards, play the video again. This time, your students’ task is to write down 3 benefits of paternity leave which are mentioned in the video. Then, they have a small discussion with four points to talk about the topic.

Before you continue to the next task – the debate, consider going to page 3 and doing the Use of English / Reading part. See more details in the section below. In the debate task, students need to work in small groups and prepare a list of arguments against and in favour of the statement: Equal paternity/maternity paid leave should be mandatory. Afterward, they will use their arguments in a debate with another group to reach a conclusion whether these type of leaves should be mandatory.

USE OF ENGLISH / READING

To give students more information about the issue, we found a short article about the surprising consequences of paternity leave in Spain. But to add some extra value, we turned this article into a multiple-choice cloze task (FCE style). This means that students have to read the text and choose words that best fit each gap. After doing that, check the answers and ask your students some follow-up questions. The information from the video and the text should make it easier to run a debate and express their opinion on the topic. Obviously, it’s great idea to use this lesson plan with people who are parents as they can definitely offer some valuable and interesting insight into the issue.