This ESL video lesson plan is designed around a short film called My Shoes, and the themes of envy and empathy. Students write a story, watch a short film, talk about empathy and envy, discuss comments on a YouTube video, and practise idiomatic expressions.
Language level: Intermediate (B1) – Upper Intermediate (B2)
Learner type: Teens and adults
Time: 60 minutes
Activity: Writing a short story, watching a short film, and speaking
Topic: Envy and empathy
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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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.



Great:-) I enjoyed it:-)
Hi Svetlana,
Good to hear from you again. Thanks a lot for commmenting. Great to know you like the lesson so much.
All the best,
Kieran
I always like your choices: they make learners think! thank you
Hi Marina,
Thanks a lot for commmenting. It’s a pleasure. Great to know you the lessons get your students thinking 🙂
All the best,
Kieran
very moving and the activity around the youtube comments is great!
I really enjoyed this lesson!
Hi Elsa,
Great to hear from you again. I’m really happy you like the YouTube comments activity and the lesson.
All the best,
Kieran
This is a really meaningful lesson. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Nhatlan,
Thanks a lot for commmenting. It’s a pleasure. I’m really happy you like the lesson so much.
All the best,
Kieran
Thanks for sharing this great lesson.
Hi Ye,
Thanks a lot for commmenting. It’s a pleasure. Great to know you like the lesson so much.
All the best,
Kieran
I am japanese. I am studying English in London now.
It was difficult but I impressed!
so I wanted to learn more English!
Thanks for teaching me that film!
Hi Mirai,
Thanks a lot for commenting. I’m so happy the film has helped you with your English. I hope you’re having a great time in London!
All the best,
Kieran
All I can say is: CONGRATULATIONS! It’s the first time I’m accessing your blog and I’m impressed with the quality of your posts. I’m Brazilian and I love “Movie Segments to Assess Grammar Goals”, by Cláudio Azevedo. Do you know his blog? It’s very similar to yours!
I also have a blog, called “English in Brazil”. Most posts are in Portuguese, but all the topics in the tab named “for teachers” are in English (www.carinafragozo.com.br). I’d be glad if you paid me a visit 🙂
Best wishes,
Carina
Hi Carina,
Thanks a lot for taking the time to comments and for your kind words about the site; I’m really happy you like the lessons so much. I already know Claudio’s site which is really great. I’ve just checked out your site and it’s very good indeed. Congratulations! By the way, I’ll be speaking in Brasilia at The Image Conference on Friday 25th October. http://braztesolbrasilia.pbworks.com/w/page/53392212/FrontPage
All the best,
Kieran
Thank you very much for this lesson and all the others! I’ve used your lesson plans for a lot of my lessons, and each time it’s a success! I can’t wait to work with this film with my students. It’s excellent!
Hi Anna,
Thanks a lot for the kind words. I’m really happy you and your students like the lessons so much.
All the best,
Kieran
I was just reading this lesson plan and then was looking at the comics at makebeliefscomix.com and found one on walking in someone else’s shoes:
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Printables/print.php?category=Empathy&file=449_Print.GIF
This could be a nice addition to this lesson.
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for the heads up. I’ll check it out.
All the best,
Kieran
Thank you so much for really useful materials
Hi Marly,
Thanks a lot for commenting. I’m really happy you find the lessons so useful.
All the best,
Kieran
can’t thank u enough for the movie and above all the teaching steps.:) i following you
Hi Marym,
You’re welcome. Thanks a lot for the kind words. I’m really happy the lessons so much and I hope your students like them too.
All the best,
Kieran
Amazing lesson!! Thank you very much!
Hi Márcia,
You’re welcome. Thanks a lot for the kind words. I’m really happy the lesson so much and I hope your students like it too..
All the best,
Kieran
Great! Great! Great!!!!! Thank You:)
Hi Olya,
You’re welcome. Thanks a lot for the kind words. I’m really happy the lesson so much and I hope your students like it too..
All the best,
Kieran
Dear Kieran
I very much appreciate your website and have used your lesson plans successfully before.
With this film, however, it was a little ambiguous: I taught two adult couples and one of them reacted very emotionally to this short film. They didn’t like it at all and got quite upset. Of course this gave the opportunity to lots of speaking to figure out the whys and hows, but I was rather unsettled after the class. However, at the Celta course I did a few years ago they mentioned the difficulty we might encounter with certain topics and that we cannot always anticipate the outcome of a class with emotional content. So, it was a good lesson for my future teaching.
Nevertheless, thank you very much for all your work – please keep on going.
Best wishes
Nicole
Dear Nicole,
Thanks a lot for the kind words.I’m really happy you enjoy the lessons. When you deal with emotions in the class, it’s always possible that there’ll be some people who aren’t so keen on emotional issues. However, I think the majority of students are really keen on expressing their feelings and talking about other people’s emotions too.
All the best,
Kieran
VERY TOUCHING!!GREAT FOR CLASS USE!!
Hi Anastasia,
Thanks a lot for the kind words. I’m really happy you like the lesson so much and I hope your students do too.
All the best,
Kieran
AMAZING! My kids enjoyed it so much. Thank you!
Fantastic material. I just love it. keep up the good work!
Hi. I am vietnamese. I watched this short film and thank you very much for great short film. I think i can learn a lesson from this short film. But my listening skill is not good, so i can not understand fully what he said. Can you write for me engsub of this short film in your reply? I look forward to your answer from you. Thanks. ^^
Hi Pham,
Thanks a lot for commenting and for the kind words. I’m sorry, but I haven’t got time to transcribe the film. Search for it with subtitles on YouTube
All the best,
Kieran
Hello! I love your site immensely, use it quite often during my lessons. Recently I faced a problem: there’s no video itself in some lessons and no links to them also. What can it be?
Hi Elena,
Thanks for the kind words. The videos are there. I suggest using another browswer.
Cheers,
Kieran
Thank you so much for this lesson, it worked beautifully and my students loved it.
Victoria.
Hi Victoria,
Thanks very much for letting me know how the lesson went.
Cheers,
Kieran