News, Politics & Government items

A reading comprehension based on the BBC website’s coverage of celebrations around the world.

Level
Level 2
Level 1
Entry Level 3
English
Rt/L2.1 Trace and understand the main events of continuous descriptive, explanatory and persuasive texts
AL Rt/L1.1 Understand continuous texts
AL Rt/E3.1 Understand longer texts
Functional English reading
Context
News, Politics & Government items

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) is a rich source of data, charts and graphs.In particular, infographics are becoming ever more popular. They can tell complex statistical stories in an easy to grasp manner but also open doors to further mathematical interpretation and investigation.

Level
Level 2
Level 1
Entry Level 3
Maths
Functional Maths - numbers and the number system
Functional Maths - handling information and data
Extract and interpret information
Context
News, Politics & Government items

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) is a rich source of data, charts and graphs.In particular, infographics are becoming ever more popular. They can tell complex statistical stories in an easy to grasp manner but also open doors to further mathematical interpretation and investigation.

Level
Level 2
Maths
Functional Maths - numbers and the number system
Functional Maths - handling information and data
Extract and interpret information
Context
News, Politics & Government items

Very topical and challenging set of tasks based on a news report about the new 5p charge for plastic carrier bags introduced in England on October 5 2015.

Questions range from Entry 3 to high Level 2 and cover dates, large numbers, bar charts, averages, interpreting data in tables, mean average and percentages. It also challenges learners’ reading and English comprehension skills. Bar chart question requires graph paper or Excel.

Level
Level 2
Level 1
Entry Level 3
Maths
General numeracy / maths
Functional Maths
Context
News, Politics & Government items

A topical reading activity based on a BBC News article about the recent ‘Super-moon’ eclipse. Learners are to extract information from the text and from images included in the article.

Level
Entry Level 3
Level 1
Level 2
English
Functional English reading
Context
News, Politics & Government items

PPT with title slide and 3 slides and a set of suggested questions to go with it.
A further worksheet showing the number of seats for the parties for the last and new parliament with tasks for E3 to L2 learners.

Editor’s note
A great resource for prompting general discussion about elections, statistics, etc.

Level
Level 2
Level 1
Entry Level 3
Maths
Functional Maths - handling information and data
Context
News, Politics & Government items

A topical and challenging series of differentiated questions for upper E3 to Level 2. Based on a news report about the May 2015 relief effort and a table of statistics about the world’s largest earthquakes.

Level
Level 2
Level 1
Entry Level 3
Maths
Functional Maths - numbers and the number system
Functional Maths - measures, shape & space
Functional Maths - handling information and data
Context
Voluntary, Charity and Community
News, Politics & Government items

Editor’s note (11/3/2015)
Now includes an E2-3 version.

Topical L1-2 Functional English reading and writing tasks based on publicity about the latest, terrible round of adult education cuts.

Two cleverly differentiated resources. One for L1-2, the other for E2-E3. Both consist of a reading comprehension and two writing tasks.

Level
Level 2
Level 1
Entry Level 3
Entry Level 2
English
Functional English - writing
Functional English reading
Context
News, Politics & Government items
Education and teaching

A simplified reading about cyclones with reference to the two cyclones in Australia in February 2015 followed by some exercises. The exercises are at different levels to meet the very different abilities of students in my class.

Editor’s note
Lovely selection of reading materials and exercises – includes fill-in tables, questions, word searches (two levels), and a blank map to add cyclone paths. E1-E3.

Update (28/2/15)
Small error in wind speed chart now corrected.

Level
Entry Level 3
Entry Level 2
Entry Level 1
M8
English
AL Ww/E1.2
AL Rt/E3.1 Understand longer texts
AL Rt/E2.1 Follow main points of short texts
Functional English reading
Context
News, Politics & Government items

A simplified and adapted version of Laura Bell’s New Year Resource (which is aimed at E3-L2).
This version is aimed at E2-E3 and is a reading comprehension based on a BBC website report of New Year round the world. Great as an introductory topic to spring term sessions.

To find the original higher level resource scroll down to See also.

Level
Entry Level 2
Entry Level 3
English
Functional English reading
ESOL
ESOL: Reading text focus - comprehension (Rt)
Context
News, Politics & Government items