International Women’s Day is just around the corner, so we’ve compiled this list of 10 ideas to help you plan lessons about women. Even if you’re not planning on covering this topic in your classes, these ideas will also work at any other time of the year. 

#1 Quotes

Before the lesson, prepare a few quotes about women or quotes from famous women. Divide the students into smaller groups and give each one a quote to discuss. 

Alternatively, display one quote at a time and have the whole group discuss it.

You can find ready-to-use cards with quotes in Warmers & Fillers: For Women. 

#2 Famous women 

Choose a few famous women who your students are familiar with. Before the lesson, prepare a few strips of paper with the names of these women and also events in their lives or what they were famous for. During the lesson, students match the events with the names. You can follow up with a discussion about these women. 

Another activity you can do with that is an interview. Divide students into two groups. One group will be the interviewers, the other one will play the role of these famous women. They have a few minutes to come up with ideas and questions. When they’ve finished, match one “interviewer” with one “famous woman”. Their task is to have an interview. In the last stage, the “interviewers” share what they found out about these famous women. 

#3 Photo activities

Before the lesson, prepare a few photos of women. You can use cut-outs from a magazine or profile cards from A Bunch of Humans. You can get two types of photos: 

Portraits of different women – students look at the photos and describe these women. They talk about their appearance but also try to think about their personality, jobs and hobbies.

Photos of women talking to each other – students come up with dialogues for the photos. You can find ready-to-use photo warmers in Warmers & Fillers: For Women. 

#4 Stereotypes

Women’s Day is a great opportunity to discuss stereotypes about women. What are the most common stereotypes? Are they true? Can your female students relate to them? 

#5 For groups of women

If you have groups of only women, this is a great task for them. Ask them a question: “How would you like to be remembered?” and just let them think about it. You can make it into a writing task or a simple speaking exercise. 

#6 For groups of men

You can have a women-themed lesson even with a group of men. Ask them to talk (or write) about women in their lives who they admire and respect. 

#7 Female superheroes of today

Together with your students make a list of women who are doing great things for the world today. 

 

#8 Cartoon characters 

On the board write the names of a few female cartoon characters.

Make sure they’re quite popular and your students are familiar with them. Good examples might be: Dora, Elsa, Wilma Flinstone, Cinderella.

Students have to think about how these characters would fit into the real world. What jobs would they do? Would they be popular? What friends and enemies would they have? What challenges would they face?

#9 Other topics

Women’s Day can be a great opportunity to introduce vocabulary related to these topics: 

• Cosmetics (Find it in Lesson Starters Intermediate)

• Spa & Wellness

• Fashion

That’s the end of our list! We hope you got inspired and have a lot of ideas for your lessons now!

And if you need some ready-to-use materials, check out our Warmers & Fillers: For Women.