C1 ESL Video Lesson Plan: Mentorship

Lesson Summary:
This Upper Intermediate (B2) to Advanced (C1) ESL lesson plan is built around a short video titled The Hidden Reason Smart People Stop Growing, which explores the theme of mentorship and the different forms mentoring can take. It is designed to help learners develop key language skills—listening, viewing, speaking, reading, writing and visually representing—through guided discussion, vocabulary building, video comprehension, article reading, roleplay, critical thinking and reflective classroom activities.

Learning Objectives:
• To introduce students to the concept of mentorship and the different forms mentoring can take
• To expand students’ vocabulary related to mentorship and professional development
• To develop students’ viewing, listening and reading comprehension skills
• To develop students’ writing skills through reflective tasks and use of new vocabulary
• To improve students’ speaking skills through roleplay, discussion and use of new vocabulary
• To improve students’ visual representing skills though multimodal composition homework tasks

Lesson Activities:
• Discuss personal ideas about mentors and mentorship
• Rank different sources of mentorship
• Explore quotations about mentors
• Predict and watch a short video
• Answer video comprehension questions
• Read the article The Art of Being a Good Mentor
• Practise new vocabulary through speaking and writing tasks
• Take part in a roleplay about a mentor–mentee relationship

Learner Type:
Upper Intermediate (B2) to Advanced (C1) mature teens and adults

Language Focus:
• Vocabulary related to mentorship and professional development
• Functional language for giving advice and setting boundaries
• Discussion language for expressing opinions and justifying choices
• Reflective language for writing about learning and growth

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
• Promote social-emotional learning (SEL)
• 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 video.

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We hope you enjoy this ESL video lesson plan.

Thanks for being part of the Film English community, and happy teaching!
— The Film English Team

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.