Universal human rights

In this Upper-Intermediate lesson plan, students will practice verbs of the senses. They will learn about human rights, practice discussing both sides of an argument, using critical thinking, and what they’ve learned about universal rights.

Warm-up

The student reads the definition of human rights according to the United Nations.

Vocabulary: human rights

The student matches new words with their meanings (principle, inherent, activist, etc.) and then uses them to complete the sentences. They revise what they learned by completing the word maps for the words privilege and straightforward.

Video: What are the universal human rights?

The student watches the video What are the universal human rights? and then answers the questions based on it. They complete the sentences from the video using words from the box. As the final exercise in the video section, they answer three fundamental questions: What are the basic human rights? Who gets to pick them? Who enforces them and how?

Vocabulary and discussion: Freedoms

The student learns of different freedoms and decides if they’re positive or negative.

Reading: Opposition to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

They read an excerpt from an article about the opposition to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Then, they complete the reading comprehension practice by marking statements based on the text as true or false.

Grammar: Verbs of the senses

The student learns what verbs of the senses there are and how to use them properly (feel, touch, see, look, etc.). They practice the verbs of the senses by completing sentences with the missing words or choosing the correct alternative.

Reading: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

The student learns what Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is and tests their understanding by matching different aspects of our lives to the correct level of hierarchy (air – physiological need; respect – esteem, etc.).

Reading: The right to safe drinking water and the right to sanitation

After learning about this right, the student tries to explain the guidelines for how these water and sanitation rights should be carried out.

Finally, thinking about their life, they put freedoms and rights from the list in order from most important to least important.