A Beautiful Mind Movie Lesson Plan

A Beautiful Mind Movie Lesson Plan helps teachers use this movie to address society’s perceptions and treatment of people with mental illnesses and disabilities.

After completing A Beautiful Mind Movie Lesson Plan, students will increase their understanding of growing character skills, overcoming obstacles, and focusing on fulfillment.

John Nash was a promising young mathematician in the 1950’s who wanted to make his mark on the world by developing his one original idea. However, his career was sidetracked when he believed that the government needed his skills to stop Soviet forces who were trying to take over the world.

Eventually, Nash was diagnosed with schizophrenia and struggled to find a way to battle his allusions in his head while finding his place in society. With the help of his wife, Alicia, John was able to return to teaching and was recognized for his breakthrough theory in economics which won him a Nobel Prize.

A Beautiful Mind Movie Lesson Plan teaches us that each individual has unique gifts and abilities that they can share with the world. With the right support, and in the right environment, we can all use those gifts and abilities to make a positive impact on others.

In order to complete these activities, students will need to watch the movie A Beautiful Mind, which has a rating of PG-13 (violence, adult content, adult language) and has a run time of 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Each of our Leadership at the Movies lesson plans includes the following activities:

✅ Reflection: allows students to journal about one of the movie’s themes prior to watching.

✅ Analysis: questions and prompts to analyze the characters, plot, and climax of the movie.

✅ Practice & Discussion: a partner/group activity that takes the principles of the movie and asks students to take action and grow in their own lives.

✅ Extension: a RAFT (Role-Audience-Format-Topic) writing prompt to help students apply their new knowledge.

✅ Lead for Impact: challenges students to pinpoint how the hero of the story exhibited The 12 Fundamentals of Impact and then synthesize how they can apply the lessons to writing their own story.

WARNING: This is a DEEP LEARNING lesson plan to help students employ a LEADERSHIP approach to SOCIAL & EMOTIONAL LEARNING.

These activities are designed to help students meet the following Social & Emotional Learning Competencies as outlined by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL):

⭐ Develop SELF-AWARENESS and SELF-MANAGEMENT skills to achieve school and life success.

⭐ Use SOCIAL-AWARENESS and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS.

⭐ Demonstrate DECISION-MAKING skills and responsible behaviors in personal, school, and community contexts.

The activities in A Beautiful Mind Movie Lesson Plan will challenge students to move closer to mastery in the following skills: leadership, cooperation with others, creativity, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, problem solving, and judgment and decision making.