How to Find Happiness

Lesson Summary:
This Advanced (C1–C2) ESL lesson plan is built around a thought-provoking video titled How I Find Happiness that explores the theme of finding happiness through awareness and environment. It is designed to help learners develop key language skills through viewing, discussion and creative activities, alongside an in-depth reading on wonder and adult happiness that encourages reflection and critical thinking.

Learning Objectives:
• To introduce students to the theme of happiness as a subjective and experiential concept.
• To introduce students to different ways of finding happiness through awareness and environment.
• To expand students’ vocabulary related to happiness, perception and mental states.
• To develop students’ viewing, listening and reading comprehension skills.
• To develop students’ writing skills through reflective and analytical tasks using new vocabulary.
• To improve students’ speaking skills through discussion and roleplay using new vocabulary.
• To improve students’ visual representing skills though multimodal composition homework tasks.
• To develop critical thinking through interpretation, evaluation and personal reflection.

Lesson Activities:
• Whole-class discussion on happiness and wellbeing.
• Analysis of quotations related to happiness.
• Guided viewing of a short video with comprehension tasks.
• Reflective writing and personal response tasks.
• Roleplay exploring awareness and environment.
• Reading and discussing an extended article on wonder and adult happiness.
• Critical thinking and reflective discussion.

Learner Type:
Advanced (C1) to Proficient (C2) mature teens and adults.

Language Focus:
• Vocabulary related to happiness.
• Vocabulary related to perception and mental states.

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
• 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
• 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.