B2 – A domestic tasks app

Every day, I swipe right to see the Google news tab and scroll through it hoping to find something I could adapt to my lessons. The other day I hit the jackpot when I saw a promising title saying that Spain is about to launch an app to ensure equal household chores distribution.

I love using articles and videos which are destined to spark an engaging and at times a bit controversial conversation. I don’t ever bring anything political or something that I know may get students a little too heated. However, when I saw the title Spain hopes domestic tasks app will ensure men pull their weight by Sam Jones for The Guardian, I knew it could be easily adapted and used with a few of my 1:1 students. First of all, the article is so short that it will take almost no time for students to read and understand it. Secondly, it comes from a reliable source. Lastly, it has just been published. Even though it is still fresh, the topic of gender equality and the division of house chores seem to be timeless and I can see myself reusing this lesson plan in the years to come.

At the end of the blog post, you can find a presentation supported by a worksheet and teacher’s notes.

I was wondering how to start this lesson without giving away the topic of the class almost right away. That’s when I started thinking about the timelessness of this subject. I have been flirting with the idea of creating a lesson plan on how advertising has changed over time, and I thought it could be interesting to start the class by analysing some old adverts for cleaning products. Unsurprisingly, this part of the lesson plan was easy to prepare as finding sexist ads took less than five seconds. Look at the pictures below and discuss what they all have in common and how advertisements have changed since then. Ask students to talk about some modern cleaning product ads and whether they focus on women or men.

Before getting into the reading part of the lesson, look at the graph of Europe’s Housework divided by gender by Statista. Although the data is from 2016, I believe that it can still give somewhat of a valid representation of housework share between adults in the 21st century. Discuss which countries have the highest percentage of women and men doing the house chores. If students’ countries aren’t represented in this graph, discuss how this data may look like where they live. Talk about different ways in which we could ensure equal division of house chores between household members. Elicit some of their ideas and then compare them with the idea proposed in the article.

After reading the beginning of the article, discuss the answer to the questions about the app. Do students think that an application could potentially help with the division of household chores? Would they ever download this application and use it at their homes? Also, focus on the term ‘mental load’ and what this phrase means to the students.

Even though this lesson plan follows a typical guided reading pattern, I thought it could be used to practise FCE Reading and Use of English Part 1 – fill in the gaps with missing words (A-D). I always found it difficult to accurately assess the CEFR level of articles, but I think I finally solved this issue. I shortened the article and used ChatGPT to assess its level for me. I can see myself using this way of checking the levels of articles every single time. It didn’t only give me the level, but it also helped me understand why it was the suggested level.

I purposefully didn’t include the actual title of the article in the presentation and the worksheet, as I was keeping it secret for the reading for gist part of the lesson. Students read the shortened version of the article and discuss the best title. Elicit some ideas, and if you want, you can share the real one with the group.

If you are working with an FCE exam preparation group, you can explain Reading and Use of English Part 1. If it’s not your priority, ask students to work individually and choose the best-fitting word for each gap. You can bring awareness to some of the phrases and fixed expressions, for example, to shed light or pull the weight.

Put students into pairs and present them with an imaginary scenario. Students imagine that they live together and need to divide house chores equally. Tell them that this division doesn’t have to be done based on the number of chores each person does, but rather on how long it takes to do each one of them. Share the answers with the rest of the group and ask others to decide if this division seems fair.

In case you have some spare time, you can put students into pairs or small groups and ask them to answer questions about the app and whether they think it will be a successful or unsuccessful project.

If you enjoyed this lesson description, go ahead and download the presentation and the worksheet with the teacher’s notes included.

Have you heard about this app? Do you think the division of house chores in your country is equal? Would you benefit from using such an app?