Topic: Family is the most important thing

Author: Anna Rabiega

Addressee:

8th‑grade primary school student.

Core curriculum:

II. Family.

The student:

1) characterizes the family as a social group; presents the role of parents and the older people in the family; analyzes the values important in his family.

The general aim of education:

The student explains the basic principles of social life.

Learning outcomes:

The student:

• defines a family from a legal point of view and describes what protection it enjoys under the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.

• defines a family from a sociological point of view and explains its functions.

• indicates the difference between traditional and modern families.

• analyzes the situation of Polish families nowadays.

Key competences:

• communicating in a foreign language,

• digital competence,

• learning to learn,

• social and civic competences.

Teaching methods:

• discussion,

• brainstorming,

• mind map,

• teaching conversation using widgets, interactive board and exercises,

• snowball method,

• source material analysis.

Forms of work:

• self‑learning,

• work in pairs,

• group work,

• whole‑class activity.

Material & equipment needed:

• computers with loudspeakers/headphones and internet access,

• multimedia resources from the e‑textbook,

• interactive whiteboard/blackboard, felt‑tip pen/a piece of chalk.

Lesson plan overview (Process):

Introduction:

1. The teacher presents the goal of the lesson: You will find out what family is from the legal and sociological point of view and what its functions are.

2. The teacher asks a willing student to read the article 18 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland on the legal protection of the family. The article is a starting point for a discussion on what a family is. The teacher asks the students to write down their suggestions on the board, and then use them to build a definition.

Implementation:

1. The students choose among their suggestions and decide on the elements the definition of “family” should contain. The teacher verifies their idea, and using leading questions helps the students come up with ideas they didn’t have before. Together they form a definition.

2. The teacher writes the word “family” in the middle of the board, and then, using a mind map, he adds: extended, with many children, single parents, reconstructed, adoptive, traditional, contemporary. After writing each expression he asks the students to explain, what they think the expression means. The willing/chosen students write their explanations on the mind map. The teacher corrects their answers if necessary.

3. In the next stage of the class the teacher informs the students their task will be to find out, what functions the family fulfils. He writes “Functions of a family” on the board. He says that the students will work using a snowball method, and explains the method if necessary:

The students write their own answers on pieces of paper together with justification for these answers. Then they compare their suggestions in pairs and write a new, joint list on a new piece of paper. The the students gather in fours and confront their ideas in a similar manner, creating another joint list of the solutions. Then the students form even larger groups, until the whole class has cooperated on finding a solution. As a result the students will jointly find out the solution to the problem. All the agreed ideas together with arguments are written on the board.

4. After completing the task the teacher asks the students to confront their solution with an interactive widget from the “Family is the most important thing” abstract. He asks some willing/chosen students to sum up the exercise.

5. The teacher asks the students about their opinion on the changing division of role in the family. He asks them to remember examples from history or literature showing various division of roles in families from before the world wars and compare the division to contemporary times. In a teaching conversation the teacher explains the necessary definitions and specifics of a traditional and modern family.

6. Later, the teacher asks the students to analyze the results of a study conducted by CBOS on the most important values in life, according to the respondents (infographics in the abstract). The students’ task is to solve exercise 2. Using the infographics they are supposed to order the answers given by the respondents from the most to the least important value. The students check their answers discussing them with the teacher.

7. Continuing the subject of values, the teacher asks the students to indicate, what aspects of life are important to them. The students give their suggestions and justify them. Then, on an interactive board “What is important to me?” they put the eight most commonly indicated values.

8. The teacher asks the students if they know what a family tree is. The students give their suggestions, and to verify them they solve exercise 2 from the abstract “Family is the most important thing” together using the interactive board. Their task is to fill in the definition of a family tree. The students discuss their solution with the teacher.

Summary:

1. At the end of the class, the teacher asks the students questions:

• What did you find important and interesting in class?

• What was easy and what was difficult?

• How can you use the knowledge and skills you have gained today?

Willing/selected students summarize the lesson.

2. Homework proposal:

a. Create a family tree for your family. You may use the scheme from the abstract.

b. Listen to the abstract recording to review the material and new vocabulary. Then do the vocabulary exercise at the end of the chapter.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Family is the most important thing

A family is a basic unit of a society. Members of a family are connected with each other with formal and emotional ties (affinity, marriage), have certain rights and obligations towards each other.

Nowadays we rarely come across extended families, where grandparents, parents and children all live together under the same roof. There are much fewer families with many children. Contemporary families are small, with two generations only – parents and children. There are more single parents (usually mothers) raising children on their own (20% of children are brought up by single parents). However, there are also reconstructed families, in which at least one of the parents remarries. Some of the children find homes and love in adoptive families. Their caretakers are not their biological parents, but legally they are a family. There are approximately 6 million families in Poland, with around 10 million children up to the age of 24.

And what is your family like? Even if you do not all live under the same roof, you are still a family. It is worth remembering about your relatives, and, for example, create your very own family tree. Become an expert on your bloodline! Find out, what a family tree is, and build your own.

In a traditional family the husband supported the family financially, when the wife took care of the children, cooked, and did all the housework. The twentieth‑century world wars have completely overturned the well established social order. For many reasons, women had to go to work, which speeded up their emancipation – a process of procuring rights, civil and political rights and liberties in this case in particular. In a modern family, both men and women work, they raise children together, and run the house together. However, in practice, still more of the responsibilities connected with the childcare and housework rests with women.

Do you know what the most important functions of the family are? Do the exercise to find out the answer to that question.

In your opinion – what values are most important to people? Analyse the diagram presenting a 2008 and 2013 opinion poll about the values people are guided by in life. Later do the exercise.