Literacy Resources
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Literacy: General literacy / English
ESOL: General ESOL
Level: E2, E3
Resource type: Listening and/or speaking activity, Reading comprehension, Wordsearch, Worksheet or assignment
A short reading text followed by exercises: True or False; Putting words in the correct order to answer questions; Writing sentences with words from the story (or sentences may be copied from the story) and a WordSearch.
This is followed by some dialogue using the situations in the story for practising pronunciation.
Suitable for literacy and ESOL.
Literacy: Functional English - reading, Rt/E2.1
Free tags: Humour
Context: Motor vehicles & Transport, Politics & News items
Level: E2
Resource type: Reading comprehension, Worksheet or assignment
A short reading adapted from an online news report. Exercises include comprehension questions, placing sentences in the correct order, matching words and phrases and a fill the gap exercise. Answer sheet included.
Editor’s note
Fully mapped to E2 Functional English (reading) with extra teaching tips.
Literacy: Rs/E3.1, Rs/E3.2, Rs/L1.1, Rs/L2.1
Free tags: adjectives, adverbs, Noiuns, verbs
Level: E3, L1, L2
Resource type: Game, Sort or match cards, Worksheet or assignment
Cards to help students recognise what nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
They can then play the bingo game or use highlighter pens to identify the different parts of speech in a text.
Literacy: Functional Skills English, General literacy / English
ICT: Developing, presenting and communicating information
Free tags: childrens, scheme, Story
Context: Health, Social care, Early years
Level: E3, L1
Resource type: Lesson plan, Scheme of work
This is a scheme of work I have used in EBD schools to get the pupils engaged with English. It is a 7 week scheme of work aimed at between E3-L2, as it can be differentiated. I have also included the lesson plans that go with the scheme.
Editor’s note
Although written for a Key Stage 3/4 school setting this would work well as a way of embedding Functional English into a vocational childcare course or a family learning situation.
Literacy: Rs/L2.1, Rt/L1.4, Rt/L1.5, Rt/L2.1, Rt/L2.3, Rt/L2.7, Rw/L1.1, Rw/L1.2, Rw/L1.3
Free tags: Equality and Diversity
Context: History
Level: L1, L2
Resource type: Reading comprehension, Worksheet or assignment
Level 1 / Level 2 resource for literacy students exploring Chinese customs. This has proved to be a popular resource with my students. Includes: reading, dictionary work, comprehension and grammatical knowledge with a fun part where learners find their Chinese horoscope animal.
Literacy: Rs/E3.2, Rs/L1.1, Rs/L2.1
Resource type: Revision material, Worksheet or assignment
Level: E2, E3, L1, L2
A worksheet that lists all of the most common word types and has space for the learners to enter their own description and their own examples.
To be completed over a number of weeks as each word type is covered and understood. The completed sheets can then be used as a revision tool / personal glossary.
Literacy: Ww/E2.1, Ww/E3.1, Ww/L1.1, Ww/L2.1
General: Dyslexia support
Level: E2, E3, L1, L2
Resource type: Discussion points, Handout or guide, Hands-on / practical activity, Investigation or project, Worksheet or assignment
This was designed to be used with a group of dyslexic learners but would be applicable for any learners with spelling difficulties.
I have used this by separating the group into small groups or pairs and then giving each group a different strategy to try with one of the words from the word list (two are provided – one for E2-E3, one for L1-2) or a word of their own that they want to spell.
The learners get 10 minutes with each strategy and then need to evaluate the strategy.
Literacy: Functional Skills English, General literacy / English
ESOL: General ESOL
Context: Health and safety
Resource type: Bingo, lotto or Pelmanism, Discussion points, Lesson plan, Listening and/or speaking activity, Warm-up, Wordsearch, Worksheet or assignment, Writing frame, Writing prompts
Level: E1, E2
Worksheets and tasks around the theme of emergencies. Written for ESOL but also suitable for adult literacy and Functionakl English.
The worksheets and tasks include reading for information, preparing and practising an emergency phone call, speaking and writing about an emergency situation. The material is set in an Irish context so some of the vocabulary is specific e.g. ‘garda’ is a police officer and ‘gardai’ is police.
Pre-entry: Rw/M6.1, Rw/M6.2, Rw/M7.3, Rw/M8.3
Literacy: Rs/E1.1, Rs/E2.2, Rs/E2.3, Rw/E1.1, Ww/E1.2
ESOL: ESOL Rs/E1.1a, ESOL Rs/E2.1b, ESOL Rs/E2.1c, ESOL Rw/E1.1a, ESOL Ww/E1.2b
Resource type: Cloze exercise, Flash cards, Sort or match cards, Worksheet or assignment
Level: M6, M7, M8, E1, E2
Set of four graduated activities for preEntry up to Entry Level 2 ideal for mixed ability literacy and ESOL groups. Colour word cards provided.
Match identical pictures (Milestones 6-7)
Match or write colour words to pictures (Milestone 8 – Entry 1)
Simple cloze activity (E1-E2)
Pre-entry: N1/M8.1
Literacy: Ww/E1.1, Ww/E2.1
Numeracy: Whole Numbers, N1/E1.1, N1/E1.2, N1/E2.1, N1/E2.2
ESOL: ESOL Ww/E1.1a, ESOL Ww/E2.1a
Resource type: Interactive presentation
Level: M8, E1, E2
A powerpoint used as a starter with all ESOL maths groups to check the spelling of numbers. I created it for E1 / E2, but always use it as a check with E3 – L2 at the beginning of the year. They all enjoy it and never complain it should be for babies. It could be used for ESOL, Literacy or Numeracy classes.
A selection of smileys are shown on each slide. Clicking reveals the number (as a digit) and a further click reveals the number spelt out as a word. Would be good used with small individual whiteboards.