How Stories Shape Our Minds

€4,99

This ESL lesson plan is designed around a short video titled How stories shape our minds | The science of storytelling and the themes of storytelling and how storytelling impacts our minds and behaviour. Students learn vocabulary related to storytelling and psychology, talk about storytelling, discuss quotations about storytelling, watch a short video, answer comprehension questions, discuss quotes from a short video, analyse a short video, write about what they have learned from viewing a short video, develop critical thinking skills by exploring issues raised in a short video, read an article, answer comprehension questions, perform a roleplay and reflect on the lesson.

Language level: Intermediate (B1) – Upper Intermediate (B2)

Learner type: Teens and adults

Time: 90 minutes

Objectives:

To understand how stories and books impact our minds and behaviours.
To explore psychological effects of storytelling and reading.
To analyse research findings related to storytelling.
To practise speaking, listening, reading, writing and critical thinking skills.
To expand vocabulary related to storytelling and psychology.
To develop empathy and reflect on personal reading experience.

Topic: Storytelling and how storytelling impacts our minds and behaviour

Language: Vocabulary related to storytelling and psychology

Watch the short video.

This ESL video lesson plan titled ‘How Stories Shape Our Minds’ 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.

Transform Your English Classroom with This Film English Multimodal Lesson

This ESL 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 and representing. 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 lesson 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.