Food Waste Rescue

Lesson Summary:
This engaging ESL video lesson plan, Food Waste Rescue Squad, explores the environmental and social impact of food waste. Aimed at Pre-intermediate (A2) to Intermediate (B1) learners, it helps students build vocabulary related to food, sustainability and social action. Through viewing, discussion, and creative tasks, students reflect on how food waste affects communities and learn practical ways to waste less and share more. The lesson also includes a reading activity based on the article Simple Ways to Waste Less and Share More and a communicative roleplay.

Learning Objectives:
• To introduce students to the theme of food waste and its environmental and social impact
• To explore the concept of food waste rescue and redistribution
• To expand students’ vocabulary related to food, sustainability and social action
• To develop students’ viewing, listening and reading comprehension skills
• To improve students’ speaking and writing through roleplay, discussion and creative tasks
• To enhance multimodal communication skills through reflective and visual activities

Lesson Activities:
• Discuss food waste and food rescue
• Watch and analyse a short video
• Learn key vocabulary related to sustainability and food
• Answer comprehension and critical thinking questions
• Read the article Simple Ways to Waste Less and Share More
• Engage in pair roleplay on food rescue
• Complete creative and reflective writing tasks

Learner Type:
Pre-intermediate (A2) to Intermediate (B1); mature teens and adults

Language Focus:
• Vocabulary related to food waste and sustainability
• Functional language for discussion, reflection and giving opinions

Transform Your English Classroom with This Film English Multimodal Lesson

This ESL video lesson plan is built around a carefully selected short video and designed using the exclusive Multimodal Approach– an innovative methodology that integrates traditional language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) with viewing – the active process of analysing and interpreting multimodal texts – and representing – creating multimodal texts. This pedagogically rich approach mirrors how communication works in the real world, through a combination of language, image, sound, gesture and spatial design, making the lesson more engaging, relevant and effective.

This ESL video lesson plan plan consists of a complete, ready-to-use package that includes:

• A thought-provoking short video
• A detailed teacher’s guide with step-by-step instructions
• A pre-viewing vocabulary glossary to scaffold understanding
• Comprehension, discussion and critical thinking questions
• Creative post-viewing tasks such as roleplays, writing prompts and reflective activities
• A thematically linked reading text to reinforce language and deepen understanding
• A final task encouraging learners to create their own multimodal compositions (e.g. vlogs, posters, infographics or social media posts)

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
• Create authentic, personalised multimodal projects that reflect their own voice and ideas
• Strengthen emotional intelligence and intercultural awareness through affective engagement with multimodal texts

Whether you’re teaching in a secondary school, university or adult education context, Film English lesson plans offer a dynamic, research-informed pathway to meaningful language learning. Join thousands of teachers worldwide who are transforming their classrooms with the Multimodal Approach and helping their students learn English—and live through English—more fully.

Watch the short video.