Author: Faty Amadou Niang | Published on 1 March 2024
Read what Faty says about this activity:
Female Activism is an activity which enables learners to develop their reading skills while learning about female activists, their goals and how women have challenged and are still challenging inequalities throughout the world.
Stage 1: Lead-in/Pre-reading
Show a picture in which learners can see a well-known female figure from their country so that they can identify her easily. Using this figure as an example, elicit the word “activist” from the learners as someone who wants to change things for the better for people.
Check understanding by asking concept-checking questions like:
(a) when you are an activist, do you want to change things or keep them the same ?
(b) Do you know any other famous activists?
Elicit/give examples of some more female activists. These could be females advocating girls education, such as Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan, the environment with Wangari Mathaai in Kenya or females advocating the rights of refugees.
Elicit the goals of activism and the particular challenges faced by female activists.
Stage 2: Reading for Gist
Give the learners a text and ask them to match a title to the text from the options A/B/C. Get feedback from the learners and ask them to justify their answers.
Stage 3: Reading for Detail
Ask the learners to read the text again and complete the table about the activists. Fast finishers can move on to question 3 and 4. Conduct feedback on the answers and ask the learners which activist they think is the most impressive.
Stage 4: Post-reading
Ask learners to discuss these questions:
- Why do women feel that they should advocate for themselves?
- Why are women sometimes victims of social inequalities?
Suggested follow-up activities
Allow learners to access books, texts, the internet or any resources available to have a better understanding of female activism. Then in groups (mixed gender preferably) ask students to create a presentation or a biography of a famous female activist.