B1 ESL Video Lesson Plan: Alike
This B1-level ESL video lesson plan is built around a thought-provoking video that explores the theme of the impact of societal pressures on childhood and family relationships. 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 Alike and the theme of the impact of societal pressures on childhood and family relationships. In the lesson students practise using alike, adjectives to describe character and routines, watch a short film, predict how the film will end and speak about the film
Language level: Intermediate (B1) – Upper Intermediate (B2)
Learner type: Teens and adults
Time: 60 minutes
Activity: Watching a short film, predicting the end of a story, and speaking
Topic: Daily routines, work and school
Language: Alike, adjectives to describe character and routines
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 short film.
Check out the lesson plan
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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.
Love it, my students found themselves alike in this film. Had lots to say and share.
Hi Ainur,
Thanks very much for commenting. I’m very happy you and your students enjoyed the film and the lesson.
All the best,
Kieran
I think that this video reflects a sad reality that is lived around the world today. Excellent teaching
Hi Tatiana,
Thanks for commenting. Yes, I agree it does reflect a sad reality in many parts of the world.
All the best,
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 Sunday’s TeachingEnglish Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/TeachingEnglish.BritishCouncil, if you’d like to check there for comments.
Best,
Ann
Hi Ann,
Thanks a lot for this; I’m honoured.
All the best,
Kieran
Hello Kieran,
OK… I’m in tears. I loved the film! Thanks very much for posting it. I will try to use it when I teach future tenses, which will be soon, I hope!
Best regards,
Liana – Athens, Greece
Hi Liana,
Thanks a lot for commenting. I’m very happy you like the film; I hope your students enjoy the lesson.
All the best,
Kieran
Really nice lesson, my students loved it!
An interesting follow-up to the question “What’s the film’s message?” is to show some comments from the youtube video (I copied some and pasted them to an IWB ahead of time to avoid inappropriate language). Some of the comments were similar to what students had said, and others took the discussion off in very different and interesting directions. With more time it would’ve been nice to get students adding their own comments too.
Hi Josh,
Great to know your students enjoyed the lesson so much.
The YouTube comments activity is a great follow-up.
All the best,
Kieran