What Does Depression Feel Like?

Lesson Summary

This ESL lesson plan is designed around the short video What Does Depression Feel Like? Signs & Support. and the themes of what depression can feel like, how it may affect daily life and how people can seek support.

Students explore vocabulary related to depression, emotions, support and recovery, discuss signs of depression and consider helpful ways of responding to someone who is experiencing emotional difficulties.

They predict the content of a short video, watch and analyse it, answer comprehension questions and reflect on its key messages. Students also perform a roleplay, read an article titled Strategies That Can Support Mental Health, complete reading comprehension activities and discuss practical strategies for supporting mental wellbeing.

Learning Objectives

• To introduce students to what depression can feel like and how it may affect daily life.
• To expand students’ vocabulary related to depression, emotions, support and recovery.
• To develop students’ viewing, listening and reading comprehension skills.
• To develop students’ writing skills through creative tasks and the use of new vocabulary.
• To improve students’ speaking skills through discussion, roleplay and the use of new vocabulary.
• To improve students’ visual representing skills through multimodal composition homework tasks.

Lesson Activities

• Discussing what depression can feel like and how it may affect everyday life
• Predicting the content of a short video
• Watching and analysing a short video
• Answering video comprehension questions
• Exploring vocabulary related to depression, emotions, support and recovery
• Developing critical thinking through discussion and reflection
• Performing a roleplay about asking for and offering support
• Reading an article about strategies that can support mental health
• Answering article comprehension questions
• Completing speaking, writing and multimodal homework tasks

Learner Type

Mature teens and adults

Language Focus

• Vocabulary related to depression and emotions
• Language for discussing support, recovery and mental wellbeing
• Expressions for asking for help and responding supportively

Level

Pre-intermediate (A2) – Intermediate (B1)

Time

90–120 minutes

Watch the short video.

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 – 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.