ESL lesson plan | B1 | The history of pink

Summary

This ESL lesson for B1 English students delves into the fascinating history of the color pink. Students will explore how colors acquire their cultural meanings and associations, with a special focus on the evolving symbolism of pink throughout the 20th century.

The lesson incorporates a video to provide historical context, combined with engaging activities designed to enhance listening comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, and grammar skills. Students will practice using the Past Simple Passive to discuss historical events, expand their vocabulary related to colors and descriptions, and engage in discussions about color symbolism in different cultures.

Access lesson

Activities

A warm-up discussion about favorite colors, their personal meanings, and their importance in daily life.
A listening comprehension task where students watch a video about the history of pink and fill in missing words.
A vocabulary matching exercise to connect key terms from the video with their definitions.
A grammar exercise focused on the Past Simple Passive, including selecting the correct form and transforming active sentences into passive ones.
A practice section on common idioms involving colors, where students complete sentences.
A vocabulary in context exercise to reinforce understanding and usage of new words.
Speaking practice activities that encourage students to discuss cultural differences in color meanings and how symbols change over time.

00:00:04 In 1927 Time Magazine took a survey of all the major department stores across the country.

00:00:10 They wanted to know which colors they associated with girls in their clothing lines.

00:00:15 The answers came back pretty mixed.

00:00:17 There's also a catalogue in 1918 that suggests that little girls should all wear blue because

00:00:22 it's a delicate and dainty color.

00:00:25 That’s Jennifer Wright, she’s an author and often writes about history and fashion

00:00:30 for Racked.

00:00:31 It was only after the war that pink got the symbolic association that we have today.

00:00:37 In 1953, Dwight Eisenhower, the general who won World War II, becomes president and this

00:00:43 actually turns out to be a pretty important moment in the history of pink.

00:00:47 It was Ike's inauguration and Mamie Eisenhower came out in this enormous rhinestone-studded

00:00:54 pink ballgown, the likes of which you never would've seen during the war when women were

00:00:58 wearing much simpler styles.

00:01:00 Mamie Eisenhower loved the color pink, and she was known for it.

00:01:04 She thought that the pink really brought our her complexion.

00:01:07 She had really pretty blue eyes, it was a nice contrast.

00:01:09 In fact, a quick search of newspaper headlines mentioning Mamie Eisenhower also reference

00:01:15 the color pink pretty frequently.

00:01:17 And it wasn’t just called pink, it was called “Mamie pink”

00:01:20 And she went around giving quotes like "Ike runs the country, I turn the pork chops."

00:01:25 But yeah, it was a very arbitrary decision that she just loved pink and everybody else

00:01:29 decided, OK this is the color that lady-like women wear.

00:01:34 There's a great song in Funny Face called "Think Pink."

00:01:40 Where the lady editor of the magazine who is very much based off of Diana Vreeland sings

00:01:46 about how women in America today have gotta think pink.

00:01:51 And there's a great line in it where she says "banish the black, burn the blue," which are

00:01:57 two colors the women would've seen a lot of during the war years.

00:02:01 Around this time, pink became a popular color, not only in just women's clothing, but also

00:02:06 in the home.

00:02:18 This was something a lot of women liked, by the way, it wasn't seen as a terribly oppressive

00:02:22 thing.

00:02:23 But, there were definitely women like Diana Vreeland who didn't really want to revert

00:02:29 to those traditional roles.

00:02:37 It was at this point where you start to see the color pink representing women real and

00:02:41 fictional who were anything but traditional.

00:02:44 The champion racecar driver Donna Mae Mims is a really good example of this.

00:02:49 She had a pink uniform and a pink helmet and a pink racecar.

00:02:53 There's the pink ladies in Grease and the Plastics in Mean Girls.

00:02:56 The girls who are incredibly canny and kind of terrifying, brightly explain

00:03:04 There's a great cover of Hillary Clinton on the cover of People magazine wearing a bright

00:03:08 pink jacket and the caption next to it is how we need to break the highest, hardest

00:03:13 glass ceiling as women.

00:03:14 So she's pretty much doing the opposite of what Mamie Eisenhower wanted to do.

00:03:19 This isn't just about the color pink, it's about how it's used to define a person's personality

00:03:25 and what we think they're capable of.

00:03:27 She still wants to show people that really, I'm just a girl, just like you.

Vocabulary focus

This lesson introduces and practices key vocabulary from the video, including: survey, associated, symbolic, enormous, arbitrary, banish. Additionally, students will learn and use common color-related idioms such as see red, feel blue, green with envy, and a white lie, expanding their descriptive abilities.

Grammar focus

The grammar focus of this lesson is the Past Simple Passive. Students will learn and practice its structure (was/were + past participle) and understand its usage when the agent of an action is unknown or less important, especially when discussing historical events and developments. Activities include identifying and forming passive sentences.