C1 ESL Video Lesson Plan: Why Boredom is Essential

Lesson Summary:
This B2–C1 ESL lesson plan is built around a thought-provoking short video titled You Need to Be Bored. Here’s Why. and the theme of boredom and its psychological importance. It is designed to help students develop key language skills—listening, viewing, speaking, reading, writing and critical thinking—through guided discussion, quotation analysis, video comprehension, article reading, roleplay and creative reflection.

Learning Objectives:
• To introduce students to the theme of boredom and its psychological importance
• To expand students’ vocabulary related to boredom, meaning and mental well-being
• To develop students’ listening, viewing and reading comprehension skills
• To improve students’ speaking skills through discussion and roleplay
• To encourage students to reflect critically on technology use and personal habits
• To enhance students’ creative and reflexive writing
• To develop students’ multimodal composition skills through homework tasks

Lesson Activities:
• Vocabulary-building exercises on boredom and meaning
• Prediction and discussion tasks before viewing
• Watching and analysing a short video
• Comprehension questions and critical thinking discussion
• Reading and discussing an article on stillness
• Writing reflection on personal experience of boredom
• Roleplay activity based on technology and boredom
• Homework multimodal tasks and creative writing

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

Language Focus:
• Vocabulary related to boredom, meaning, reflection and mental well-being

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 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.