This lesson is based on the theme of inspiration and inspirational quotes in films.
Language level: Upper-intermediate (B2.1) – Advanced (B2.2)
Learner type: Teens and adults
Time: 90 minutes
Activity: Watching three videos, listening
Topic: Inspiration, inspirational quotes and happiness
Language: Inspirational quotes
Material: Three short videos, video transcript and answer sheet
Downloadable material: inspiration lesson instructions 40 inspirational film quotes transcript inspirational quotes will smith interview sheet
Step 1
Ask your students if they can think of any inspiring quotes or speeches from films. Ask them if they can remember the exact words and the context.
Step 2
tell your students they are going to watch a short video in which there are 40 inspiring quotes in 2 minutes. The clips are very short and fast, and it’s important to tell students that at this stage they don’t need to try to understand everything. Ask them the following questions:
Do you recognise any of the films?
Were any of the quotes the ones you remembered?
Step 3
Show your students the transcript of the video which is itself an inspiring speech created through a montage of the 40 inspiring quotes.
Step 4
Ask your students the following questions:
What is “the pursuit of happiness”?
What do you need to do to get happiness?
Step 5
Tell your students they are going to watch an inspiring quote from a film called The Pursuit of Happyness.
Step 6
Now show your students a kinetic typography film of the quote. Show it again, this time pause it and get students to repeat each sentence.
Step 7
Ask your students if they have any favourite inspirational quotes, get them to share the quotes and discuss them. Then show students the inspirational quotes in the presentation below, and ask them to discuss the quotes in small groups.
Homework
Ask students to watch this video which is a collection of interviews with the main actor of The Pursuit of Happyness Will Smith in which he argues that our words and thoughts have real power.
Students should watch the film at home and make notes on what Will Smith says in the following sections in the Scribd document below, and in the following class discuss what he says about positive thinking and attitude.
Follow up
A wealth of material on inspiration can be found at David Deubel’s excellent EFL Classroom.
I hope you enjoy the lesson.
excellent lesson plan, thank you so much. i am using it as part of looking at student’s goals and objectives, those already fulfilled and those they are still working towards. this is a wonderful opening for the whole thing.
Hi Lucy,
Thanks a lot for your kind comments and support. I think it’s a great idea to use the lesson to look at your students’ objectives and goals. Please let me know how it goes.
All the best,
Kieran
Hi again Kieran!
Just want ed to thank you again, now I’ve enjoyed such a very excellent class with 4 adult intermediate Costa Rican students.
After watching the 40 quotes and identifying as many of the movies as they could, they looked at the transcript and in pairs identified the most inspiring lines, and tried to remember in what movie – and in what probable context- the words were said. We then watched the movie again and, transcript in hand, noticably got more out of it, identifying more language and more context.
They also very much enjoyed the typographic pep talk, and benefited from the opportunity to practice ‘shadowing the speaker’.
After talking about what is happiness and the need for self-fulfillment, they moved onto the task of asking about and discussing life goals fulfilling and still being worked upon. On a sheet of paper, they wrote in random locations
*3 goals they had had as children
*3 goals they are proud to have achieved in their lives
*some RECENT achievements
*3 goals still being worked on
They then switched papers to ask each other about their progress in fulfilling different goals, past and future. It was really nice to see them motivating each other towards self-fulfillment.
thanks once more for so generously sharing!
best regards
lucy
Hi Lucy,
The way you’ve used the lesson sounds great, i really liked the way you’ve personalised for your students by getting them to reflect on their past and present goals. I’m really happy that you find the site useful. Thanks for getting back to me and telling me how the lesson went, I really appreciate it. It’salways really usefulto get feedback on how other teachers and their students have found the lessons.
All the best,
Kieran
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Hey Kieran,
just a heads up, but the you tube video for the Pursuit of Happyness scene seems to have been taken down. There’s another version of the scene here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPEdwaLQLag but it’s a bit longer.
Cheers for the lesson – will be using it later
David
Hi David, Thanks a lot for the heads up, I’ll embed the other video now. The fact that clips from films are flagged and taken down from YouTube is one of the reasons I don’t use film clips much. Thanks, again, David. All the best, Kieran
hi
this looks great for inspiring teenage learners, just one thing – is there a list of the films the 40 quotes are from, I couldn’t find one here? – would be helpful
thanks
Hi Amanda,
Thanks a lot for commenting, I’m really glad you like the lesson. Unfortunately, I haven’t got a list of the 40 films, but students have a great time trying to guess them!
All the best,
Kieran
There is a list of the films here. I plan to use this lesson soon as a lead in to talking about objectives and goals. Similar to what Lucy did above. Thanks very much! http://www.hark.com/clips/khvbtvnvcy-40-inspirational-speeches-in-2-minutes
Thanks a lot for the link,Andrew, it’s really useful.
All the best,
Kieran
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