France makes abortion a constitutional right
Lesson plan overview
This Breaking News lesson plan is about France becoming the first country in the world to enshrine abortion rights in its constitution. Students will discuss constitutional rights, reproductive rights, and different laws in their countries. They will also learn collocations with “law”. Other lessons you might find interesting are “Idioms: gender equality”, “Idioms: law“, “International women’s day”, “Mental load and invisible labor”.
The lesson starts with a couple of questions about constitutional rights.
Vocabulary: Students learn 7 verb + noun collocations related to laws (enshrine in the constitution, pass a law, overturn a law, enforce a law, abolish a law, amend a law) by looking at a sentence containing each collocation, and deciding which definition, out of 2 given, is the correct one. To practise, students complete 7 sentences with the correct verb. After that, they discuss a few conversation questions.
Next, students learn adjectives used to describe laws (e.g. stringent, lenient, unenforceable, controversial, pioneering). They match the adjectives to their definitions, and are asked to give examples of laws that might be described with each of the adjectives.
Listening: Before watching the video, students engage in a pre-listening discussion about reproduction rights. They also look at 3 news headlines from different countries, and discuss factors that influence the different approaches to this topic in these countries. Next, students watch a video called “France makes abortion a constitutional right”, and answer 4 questions in their own words. Then they engage in a post-listening discussion.
The last 2 tasks are focused on speaking: First, students are asked to work in groups and identify a law from their country that needs to be amended, and propose a set of legal reforms. Finally, they debate 4 topics (e.g. in favour or against legalisation of marijuana; in favour or against stricter environmental laws, etc.).
For more speaking practice, and to review the vocabulary from this lesson, you can check out the conversation cards.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
Pre-class activities
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In-class activities
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Additional resources
Each video-based lesson plan includes links to additional resources (videos and articles), which are FREE can be found online (in the pre-class activities page. These links aim to extend the learning experience, enabling students to connect classroom knowledge with real-world applications.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
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