ESL/EFL Level: C1/C2 (Advanced)
Lesson Topics: social class, India's caste system, social equality
Skill Focus: Listening, Speaking, Vocabulary
Approximate Class Time: 2 hours
Lesson Plan Download: social-equality-class-india-advanced-092024.docx
Lesson Overview:
Lesson Topics: social class, India's caste system, social equality
Skill Focus: Listening, Speaking, Vocabulary
Approximate Class Time: 2 hours
Lesson Plan Download: social-equality-class-india-advanced-092024.docx
Lesson Overview:
- After warm-up questions, students preview 12 vocabulary items contained in the YouTube video entitled "Why am I untouchable?" The video describes the experiences of Sujatha Gidla, a woman born into the lowest caste in India (Dalit), who later moved to the United States. The video is 4:06 in length. While the video focuses on India, note that the majority of the lesson focuses on social justice in general.
- The video is followed by comprehension and a vocabulary-matching activity. After vocabulary matching, students form discussion questions with the target vocabulary.
- There are two debate topics related to social equality. This is followed by one roleplay activity about marriage between a young adult and her parent.
- Next, students focus on a structure in their society and try to identify problems related to it, causes, and finally, solutions.
- As a more lighthearted activity, students next make a list of five 'classy' and unclassy types of behavior. (This is more about etiquette than social divisions.)
- After famous quotations, the lesson ends with a review of vocabulary before presenting some final discussion questions.
ADVANCED (C1/C2) Lesson on Class & Social Equality
Warm-up-Questions
- Does the society you live in have distinct social classes? If so, what are they?
- What does "social equality" mean to you? Can you think of examples where social equality is or isn’t present in your own country?
- What do you know about the class structure in India?
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This lesson plan was created by Matthew Barton of EnglishCurrent.com (copyright). Site members may photocopy and edit the file for their classes. Permission is not given to rebrand the lesson, redistribute it on another platform, or sell it as part of commercial course curriculum. ChatGPT was used to generate answer keys and some famous quotations. For questions, contact the author.
Comprehension Question Answer Key
- ...
- The story highlights how deeply ingrained the caste system is in Sujatha’s life, as she instinctively reacts to the idea of "polluting" her boyfriend by touching the food, even though she’s no longer in India.
- According to Sujatha, Hinduism serves as a religious and ideological justification for the caste system, assigning people to specific roles in society based on their birth and supposed origin from different parts of Brahma’s body.
- False – Sujatha mentions that she does experience some discrimination in the U.S., but it’s based on her nationality, not her caste.
- Sujatha gains a sense of self-worth and confidence from working in a crucial industry (the MTA), where she feels her work is valued and essential to society.
- ...
Vocabulary 1-menial, 2-prop, 3-filthy, 4-exploitation, 5-inferior, 6-a screeching halt, 7-intellectually, 8-hereditary, 9-demolish, 10-occupation, 11-merchant, 12-caste
Collocation: 1-b, 2-c, 3-e, 4-a, 5-d