Today’s children have to learn today’s values.

How will you teach your students non-sexist values with

the use of verbal and non-verbal communication?

INTRODUCTION
Learning is essential to our existence. Just like food nourishes our bodies, information and continued learning
nourishes our minds. Lifelong learning is an indispensable tool for every career and organisation. Today,
continuous learning forms a necessary part in acquiring critical thinking skills and discovering new ways of relating
to people from different cultures. To live a life without continuous learning is unthinkable.
“The only thing that is constant is change,” Heraclitus famously said; change in your career, change in your
personal life, change in your community and organisations. One of the most effective ways of dealing with
change is lifelong learning.
So important as it is, and bearing in mind our work as teachers, it seems obvious that we have to prepare very well
everything we do in class, and one of them is to design the different steps to be taken throughout the school
year.

LEGAL FRAMEWORK
As a reference and legal framework I have to say that it will be Royal Decree 126/2013 the first to bear in mind, as
it develops the curriculum for Primary Education nationwide, which will later on be adapted to the characteristics
of our Region in Decree 103/2014. Those adaptations will be further contextualised in the Year Planning in our
school, as well as in the Class Plannings. Obviously two other Documents will be taken into account, namely the
Common European Framework, which states how languages must be taught according to European linguistic
policies, and the LEEX, the law for Education in Extremadura.

CONTEXT / METHODOLOGY
All those aspects need a methodology to be carried out. That approach must lead to communication, for what the
action-oriented guidelines present in the Common European Framework will be followed, by means of which the
language is used doing things in meaningful contexts, though it is certain that aspects, such as rural or urban
environment or neighbourhood will be of paramount importance as far as the teaching of a second language.

RESOLUTION
First of all I need to say that everything suggested in this paper as far as methodology is concerned will follow
three important aspects, namely:
● Action-oriented approach, an approach adapted from the theories of the British linguist David Wilkins and
developed in the Common European Framework.
● Task-based instruction, a technique of sequencing activities in which students solve a task that involves an
authentic use of language, rather than completing simple language questions about grammar or
vocabulary. And
● Learner-centred teaching, in which students are placed at the centre of learning. This means that the
learner or student is responsible for learning while the tutor is responsible for facilitating the learning.
Now that I have clarified this, which I consider of the utmost importance, I will proceed to explain how I will teach
my students.
Needless to say that the first I need to take into account is the context, the class and the students I will be
teaching, along with the PEC, the school educational project in which we are told the basic guidelines I must take
bearing in mind the school is located in a rural area and where the teaching through competences has become
essential for students to develop and live in today’s society.
The class is made up of 18 students in the 4th year, of whom 10 are girls and 8 boys. They all get on very well,
which will favour a positive atmosphere. They are lively and playful, something of what I will take advantage of in
order to put into practice some strategies and techniques that will make my teaching focused on communication
without them being aware they are learning, but rather using the language when it is needed.
One of the pupils presents some learning difficulties, but they will be overcome in the best way possible thanks to
the use of the task-based instruction I mentioned above together with the active methodology I have just
suggested.
The students will be working on the topic PROFESSIONS, and the task they will be able to perform at the end of
the unit is making a poster of jobs they think are interesting.
The aims I wish my students to get are the following:
● To raise awareness of attitude learners ’ own perceptions of gender roles in jobs
● To review and learn vocabulary for different jobs
● To notice gender in job names
● To consider why non-gendered language for jobs is important
● To reinforce the use of the present simple for describing jobs
 ● To appreciate how a range of jobs can be important, interesting or exciting
● To promote group work and collaboration skills

With this lesson plan I want to raise awareness of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and
more specifically Goal 5, gender equality
The first five minutes of the lesson I will introduce the topic and will ask the learners what they want to be
when they grow up and why. Do they know anyone who does that job, for example a family member,
or is there anyone famous with that job? With this WARM-UP they practise ORAL INTERACTION at the time
we check PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE.
The next 10 minutes I will try to generate some more vocabulary. Now I ask learners to say what other jobs
they know and brainstorm as many as possible. I will accept all contributions at this stage, even if they
are expressed in gendered language.
It is the moment to raise awareness and discuss. I tell learners that they are now going to draw three people
doing different jobs. With this I integrate LISTENING and READING. I ask them to draw:
● a person who catches criminals
● a person who fixes cars
● a person who helps look after you when you’re sick, for example in hospital who isn’t a doctor
Alternatively, I show a picture of something that person needs for their job (e.g. handcuffs, a
thermometer…) and ask them to draw. I set a time limit for each drawing.
When the learners are ready, I ask them to compare their pictures in small groups. They SPEAK in the
target language and LISTEN to what their classmates and the teacher say. Then, I display or show the jobs
photos. I ask them if there are any big differences and elicit if their pictures show people of a different
gender. As you can observe, SOCIAL AND CIVIC COMPETENCES are put into practice.
If there are lots of learners with pictures showing the more traditional gender for that job, we talk about
why they drew their pictures like that. Is there someone in their family with that job? Have they seen
women/men on TV doing this job? Can everyone do this job?
I explain to the learners that the United Nations, an international organisation that works to bring peace
and help solve world problems like gender equality and climate change, has 17 special goals. The goals
are designed to help solve these world problems for everyone, everywhere.
This activity will last 15-20 minutes.
Next we are going to work with MASCULINE AND FEMININE NAMES, as well as with GENDERED LANGUAGE and
PRESENT SIMPLE for descriptions.
Ask the learners to look again at their first drawing. What’s the best name for this job,
policeman/policewoman or police officer? [police officer] Why? [It’s for everybody.] Why is it good to have
names for jobs that are for everybody? Elicit or explain that it helps everybody believe they can do this
job if they want.
I tell the learners I am going to give their group some job names (the groups will be formed, and they need
to find all the job names that they think are for everybody and leave out the ones they think are only
for one gender.)
I give out the cards and allow the groups time to sort them.
As I monitor, make a note if there are any job names which are not gendered but learners have left out,
e.g. kindergarten or teacher, and ask them why . If they left them out because they felt they were jobs
suitable for one gender, I might like to discuss this as a class at the end of the activity, e.g. I could do an
image search to find pictures of both men and women doing that job.
This time 10-15 minutes will be necessary for the activity.
After having studied vocabulary, language functions and gone through the work with several skills, integrating
them, it is the moment to prepare for the project.
I write the following adjectives on the board: important, exciting, interesting. What jobs do learners think are
important etc.? I ask them for a few ideas and ask them why for each one. For example, Rubbish collectors have
an important job because they help keep our houses and streets clean.
Next, I tell them to work in their groups and sort the non-gendered jobs cards into columns, according to which
adjective they think each job is. If they think a job is two of them, for example interesting and important, I tell
them to put it in the middle.
As I monitor, I ask the learners to explain some of their choices.
Before coming to the last activity I would like to make some clarifications which have to do with the putting into
practice several aspects:
● the work carried out with cross-curricular elements, such as road education and cooperation.
● the connection established between our subject and another subject in the curriculum, that is
interdisciplinarity: social sciences.
● Scaffolding, as the activities and exercises presented are done in a graded and guided manner,
constructing in that way meaningful learning.
 ● Blooms’ taxonomy, because the learners will have to apply, analyse, evaluate and create, favouring
learning to learn and critical thinking.
● The role of the teacher is mainly guide and organiser, for, if you remember, it is a learner-centred
approach in which students will be totally immersed in the learning process.
And the moment comes to make the poster.
Now I tell the learners that they are going to make a poster (READING and WRITING will be worked mainly) in
their groups about one type of job, i.e. about important jobs, exciting jobs or interesting jobs. I assign (or let them
choose) an adjective to each group. If I have more than three groups, I assign the adjectives twice or as needed.
I explain the steps to make the poster:
● Each learner in the group chooses a different job from the cards they put under that adjective (or two
jobs, depending on the learners).
● They take their chosen card and write about that job and why they think it’s
important/exciting/interesting.
● They draw a picture of someone doing that job.
● They cut out their writing and picture.
● They write a title on the big piece of paper I give them for the poster, such as ‘Jobs we think are important’
or similar.
● They arrange their cards, writing and pictures on the poster and glue them on.
As learners work on their posters, I monitor and help as needed. I provide a model or frame for the writing on the
board, or I ask them to write in their notebooks first for me to check before copying on to the paper that they will
cut out. Fast finishers can help someone else in the group, take another job to write about or make extra
illustrations for the poster, e.g. by drawing pictures of the jobs for their adjective that they didn’t use.
When the posters are finished, they put them up around the room. I allow learners to look at the other posters
and say which job from each poster they would most like to do. Alternatively, learners could present their posters
to the class.

CONCLUSION
As you can see through the activities suggested I have tried to provide a general overview of how I will work in
class with _______________ . I firmly believe that with them I put into practice the most recent trends in English
teaching, and what is more, I follow the instructions given in the Common European Framework as well as in the
legal documents as far as the teaching of English is concerned.
With them I am sure we both, teachers and students, will be successful in the teaching-learning process.