The Boy Who Learned To Fly

This ELT lesson plan is designed around the theme of the Olympic Games and a short film based on the life of Usain Bolt film created by Moonbot Studios and commissioned by Gatorade.

In the lesson students speak about sports and the Olympic games, watch a short film, retell a story and write a summary of a story.

 

 

I would ask all teachers who use Film English to consider buying my book Film in Action as the royalties which I receive from sales help to keep the website completely free.

 

 

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

Learner type: Teens and adults

Time: 90 minutes

Activity: Watching a short film, speaking and writing

Topic: Usain Bolt, sport and the Olympic Games

Language: Vocabulary related to sports and the Olympic Games

Materials: Short film

Downloadable materials:    the boy who learned to fly lesson instructions

 

Support Film English

Film English remains ad-free and takes many hours a month to research and write, and hundreds of dollars to sustain. If you find any joy or value in it, please consider supporting Film English with a monthly subscription, or by contributing a one-off payment.

Monthly subscription

€7,00 EUR – monthly €3,00 EUR – monthly €10,00 EUR – monthly €25,00 EUR – monthly

One-off payment

€10,00 EUR €20,00 EUR €30,00 EUR €40,00 EUR €50,00 EUR €100,00 EUR

 

Step 1

Write “the Olympic Games” on the board. Pair your students and ask them to come up with as many different Olympics sports as they can in 3 minutes.

 

Step 2

Get feedback from the whole class and write the sports on the board. Go through pronunciation.

 

Step 3

Ask your students which sports they watched in the Olympic games in August.

 

Step 4

Ask your students to tell their partner about an athlete from their country who won a medal or did well at the Olympics in Rio.

 

Step 5

Put your students into small groups and ask them to discuss the following questions:

• What characteristics does an athlete need to become an Olympian?
• What does an athlete have to do to become an Olympian?
• What do you think the life of an Olympian is like?

 

Step 6

Hold a plenary discussion based on the questions in the previous stage.

 

Step 7

Write “Usain Bolt” and the following questions on the board:

• What do you know about him?
• How many medals did he win in Rio?
• How many Olympic medals has he won in total?
• What do you know about his character?
• What do you know about his childhood?
• What do you know about his life?

 

Step 8

Hold a plenary discussion on what your students know about Usain Bolt’s life based on the questions from the previous stage?

 

Step 9

Tell your students they are going to watch a short film titled The Boy Who Learned to Fly, based on the life of Usain Bolt. As they watch the film they should check if any of the facts about his life they discussed are shown in the film, and try to remember as much of the story as they can.

Show the film.

 

 

Step 10

Pair your students and ask them to retell the story of Usan Bolt’s life to each other.

 

Step 11

Get the whole class to reconstruct the story in as much detail as possible.

 

Step 12

Tell your students they are going to watch the film again; this time they should concentrate on the internal struggle which Usain experienced, and the advice his mother gave him.

Show the film again.

 

Step 13

Elicit or explain that Usain experienced internal struggle when he found it difficult to cope with the expectations of his fellow Jamaicans and feared failure. His mother’s advice was “all worries do is weigh you down”, and “you always go faster when you keep ot light”. Her advice helped him to overcome his fears and the pressure of performance to ultimately become the fastest man in the world.

 

Step 14

Ask your students to discuss Usain’s mother’s advice.

 

Homework

Give your students the link to the film; ask them to watch it for homework and write a summary of the story it tells.

 

I hope you enjoy this ESL lesson.

Support Film English

Film English remains ad-free and takes many hours a month to research and write, and hundreds of dollars to sustain. If you find any joy or value in it, please consider supporting Film English with a monthly subscription, or by contributing a one-off payment.

Monthly subscription

€7,00 EUR – monthly €3,00 EUR – monthly €10,00 EUR – monthly €25,00 EUR – monthly

One-off payment

€10,00 EUR €20,00 EUR €30,00 EUR €40,00 EUR €50,00 EUR €100,00 EUR

 

 

from Film Lessons – Film English http://film-english.com/2016/08/23/the-boy-who-learned-to-fly/