Thoughtful Leadership

Lesson Summary:
This advanced ESL video lesson plan is built around a short, thought-provoking video titled The Lost Art of Building a Company with Integrity. It explores leadership, thoughtful leadership and value-driven decision-making, helping learners analyse how values shape organisational culture. Through guided viewing, discussion, critical thinking tasks, roleplay and extended reading, students develop advanced language skills while reflecting on ethical leadership in professional contexts.

Learning Objectives:
• To introduce students to the concept of leadership and how leaders shape organisational culture.
• To introduce students to the concept of thoughtful leadership and value-driven decision-making.
• To expand students’ vocabulary related to leadership, conflict and professional values.
• To develop students’ viewing, listening and reading comprehension skills through guided tasks.
• To develop students’ writing skills through reflective and analytical tasks using new vocabulary.
• To improve students’ speaking skills through structured discussions and roleplay using new vocabulary.
• To improve students’ visual representing skills through multimodal composition homework tasks.
• To practise critical thinking through discussion and reflection on leadership choices and values.

Lesson Activities:
• Discuss leadership values and thoughtful leadership.
• Analyse quotations about leadership.
• Predict content before viewing a short video.
• Watch a short video and answer comprehension questions.
• Analyse themes and ideas presented in the video.
• Take part in a structured leadership roleplay.
• Read an article on leadership values and organisational culture.
• Complete comprehension, discussion and writing tasks based on the article.

Learner Type:
Advanced (C1) to Proficient (C2) learners
Mature teens and adults

Language Focus:
• Leadership and organisational culture
• Thoughtful leadership
• Conflict and decision-making
• Professional and ethical values

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.