Pete Gordon's Blog: Success

This EFL lesson is designed around a short film by Lara Lee for The School of Life titled Success, and the theme of the nature of success. Students talk about success, watch a short film, and read a transcript.

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

Learner type: Teens and adults

Time: 90 minutes

Activity: Talking about success, watching a short film, and reading

Topic: Success

Language: Vocabulary related to success

Materials: Short film and transcript

Downloadable materials: success lesson instructions success transcript

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Step 1

Write “success” on the board. Elicit its meaning, its verb form – to succeed – and its adjective form – successful – forms.

Step 2

Pair your students and ask them to discuss what success means to them.

Step 3

Get feedback from the whole class and write up some of their ideas.

Step 4

Tell your students they are going to watch a short film about success. As they watch they should try to understand what the narrator says about the nature of success, and to compare the narrator’s definition of success with their own.

Show the film.

Success from Lara Lee on Vimeo.

Step 5

Get feedback from the students on how the narrator’s view of success compares with their own.

Step 6

Tell your students they are going to watch the film again. This time their task is to listen for examples of what success is according to the narrator.

Show the film again.

Step 7

Elicit some of the examples such as:

Listening to a child.
Filling your mind with interesting things.
Knowing when to put your arm around someone.

Get your students to discuss whether they think these things are really examples of success.

Step 8

Give your students the transcript and ask them to read it. Help them with vocabulary. Ask them if they agree with the narrator’s point of view.

Step 9

Pair your students and ask them to tell their partner what they think they are a success at in their lives.

Step 10

Hold a plenary session based on what students consider themselves to be successes at.

Homework

Give students this link to a video in which the writer Alain de Botton, who is also the narrator of the Success short film, examines our ideas of success and failure. For homework students should watch the video and in the following class discuss the ideas in it.

http://www.ted.com/talks/alain_de_botton_a_kinder_gentler_philosophy_of_success?language=en

https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/alain_de_botton_a_kinder_gentler_philosophy_of_success.html

I hope you enjoy this ESL lesson.