B1 ESL Video Lesson Plan: Penelope in the Treehouse
This B1-level ESL video lesson plan is built around a thought-provoking video that explores the theme of families. It is designed to help learners develop key language skills—listening, viewing, speaking, reading, writing and visually representing—through guided discussion, roleplay, vocabulary building, and engaging classroom activities.
Check out the lesson planThis ESL video lesson plan is designed around a short film titled Penelope in the Treehouse and the theme of families. In the lesson students watch but don’t hear the start of a short film, decide what is happening and what the characters are saying, predict the rest of the story and write a story.
Language level: Intermediate (B1) – Upper Intermediate (B2)
Learner type: All ages
Time: 90 minutes
Activity: Watching a short film, predicting and writing a story, discussing a film
Topic: Families
Language: Vocabulary related to families, past simple tense
Benefits for Teachers:
- Save hours of preparation with a fully developed, flexible lesson plan
- Engage students through compelling stories and real-world themes such as emotional intelligence, character, values, empathy, personal development, identity, relationships, global issues and social issues
- Build classroom routines that integrate multimodal literacy naturally and progressively
- Foster more inclusive and differentiated learning by using varied modes of input
- Rely on a trusted methodology backed by educational research and grounded in the theories of Vygotsky, Kress, Mayer and Krashen
Benefits for Learners:
- Develop communicative competence and confidence through integrated skill-building
- Expand vocabulary and improve listening and reading comprehension through repeated, meaningful exposure
- Think critically and creatively while exploring powerful social and emotional themes
- Strengthen emotional intelligence and intercultural awareness through affective engagement with multimodal texts
Watch the film.
Check out the lesson plan
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— The Film English Team
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Transform Your English Classroom with the Multimodal Approach
This ESL video lesson plan is built around a thought-provoking short video and designed using the innovative Multimodal Approach, integrating listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing, and representing. Engage learners with real-world themes, develop communicative competence, build vocabulary and foster critical thinking through dynamic, research-informed activities. Find out more about the Multimodal Approach and join thousands of teachers transforming their classrooms with Film English.
Thanks. I think you have mixed up the film and the instructions for this one?
Thanks for the heads up, Nigel. Sorted now!
All the best,
Kieran
Thanks for all the work you do, which is the source of incredible inspiration. I am a fil lover and I tend to use films whenever I can. I will most definitely buy your book.
Hi Lilly,
Thanks a lot for commenting. I hope you and your students enjoy the films and lessons. I hope you like my book too 🙂 Thanks for the support.
All the best,
Kieran
Thanks for sharing such amazing lessons!
Best regards from Mexico!
Hi Omar,
Thanks a lot for commenting. I’m very happy you like the lessons so much.
All the best,
Kieran
Thanks for choosing my short film to use with this! It would be gratifying to know if it is in fact used in a classroom.
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks very much for commenting. First of all, congratulations on a wonderful film. Secondly, I can assure you the film will be used by hundreds of teachers; I’m sure their students will love it!
All the best,
Kieran
I can confirm this. I’m an ESL teacher in Turkey. I used it today and my students loved it. Thank you very much for this short film!
Hi Timothy,
Thanks for commenting. Very happy you can confirm the film is being shown and enjoyed in classrooms!
All the best,
Kieran
That’s wonderful to hear!
I just did this with my Korean students in Dubai. We all thoroughly enjoyed the film and the lesson plan. Great for conversational practice. I will be donating soon. I was wondering if there is a transcript for the film? Or subtitles? My students want to watch it again but it’s difficult for them. Thank you!
Hi Stephanie,
I’m happy you all enjoyed the film and the lesson. With regard to the transcript I simply haven’t got time to transcribe scripts for teacher. Each lesson takes about 10 hours of my time.
Cheers,
Kieran
I’ll be using it in a few minutes for an online class in Brazil!
Congrats to both of you and many thanks!!!
I hope your students enjoy the lesson, Isabel.
Cheers,
Kieran
Hi Kieran,
Just to let you know that we’ve shortlisted this blog post for this month’s TeachingEnglish blog award and I’ll be putting up a post about it on today’s TeachingEnglish Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/TeachingEnglish.BritishCouncil, if you’d like to check there for comments.
Best,
Ann
Hi Ann,
Thanks very much for letting me know; I’m honoured to be nominated.
All the best,
Kieran