How to be a good friend

This Intermediate-level ESL lesson plan explores the topic of friendship through a series of engaging, communicative activities. Students will reflect on what makes relationships strong and meaningful, while expanding their vocabulary related to personal qualities and interpersonal connections. The lesson incorporates listening and reading tasks, functional language for expressing opinions, and discussion prompts to develop fluency and confidence.

Warm-Up 

To start, students are introduced to the idea of emotional congruence—the alignment of thoughts, feelings, and actions in a relationship. This opening activity encourages them to think about the emotional dynamics of friendships and sets the stage for the lesson’s theme. It serves as a lead-in to activate background knowledge and generate personal responses.

Video 

Students will watch the video “How Some Friendships Last — and Others Don’t.” This listening comprehension task is supported by post-viewing questions designed to guide understanding of key points.

Exercises

In this section, students work with a variety of activities aimed at practicing vocabulary related to friendship and personality. Exercises include matching qualities and traits to the correct category, grouping similar phrases, and completing sentences using context clues. Students will also choose which traits fit the speaker best. These activities focus on collocations and common expressions used to describe people and relationships.

Reading 

The reading component involves examining a brief text about friendship. This will be followed by questions about the text.

Discussion 

The lesson concludes with a discussion around a famous quote about friendship, providing a reflective and thought-provoking end to the session.