Marathons

Lesson Summary:
This complete ESL video lesson plan guides students through the inspiring story of a man who ran 365 marathons in 365 days. It offers a ready-to-use package that helps learners explore the themes of running, marathons and personal challenges. The lesson includes vocabulary development, guided viewing, structured discussion, quotations analysis, comprehension tasks, a roleplay activity, an article reading task and multimodal homework. Suitable for Intermediate (B1) to Upper Intermediate (B2) learners, this comprehensive resource builds reading, listening, speaking and writing skills through meaningful and motivating content.

Learning Objectives:
• To introduce students to the themes of running, marathons and personal challenges.
• To expand vocabulary related to long-distance running and personal challenges.
• To develop students’ viewing, listening and reading comprehension skills.
• To improve students’ writing skills through creative tasks using new vocabulary.
• To improve students’ speaking skills through roleplay and discussion.
• To develop students’ visual representing skills through multimodal homework tasks.

Lesson Activities:
• Vocabulary activation and discussion
• Pre-viewing questions on running and marathons
• Viewing and comprehension of a short video
• Analysis of quotations about marathons
• Roleplay based on a charity fitness event
• Reading an article titled How Ordinary People Complete Extraordinary Challenges: Eight Strategies to Complete Challenges
• Article comprehension and discussion
• Writing tasks and multimodal homework

Learner Type:
Mature teens and adults at B1–B2 level

Language Focus:
Vocabulary related to long-distance running and personal challenges

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.