General ESOL

Fun, multi-purpose speaking / reading / listening / writing / maths warm-up activity that can be used at any level and for any subject – particularly effective at Entry Level. Learners shake two dice to locate a word on a number matrix (good for maths:co-ordinates too!).
Five sample grids are provided – covering descriptions, homophones (2 grids), spellings and clothes – plus a blank grid so you can make your own. Includes full instructions and can also be used for numeracy.

A fabulous set of scaffolded reading/writing tasks – written for E2-E3 ESOL but absolutely ideal for Entry 2-3 (and higher) Functional English. The reading is based on three different topical texts on this emotive subject (spring 2010).
The writing involves writing a letter to your MP – a frame is provided for E2 writers. Get your college/students involved in this now!
With full details of relevant Functional English criteria.
Please also download the related PowerPoint (see below).

The story of Edward Elgar is a set of two lovely resources about the famous British composer. A PPT with simple past tense illustrated cloze exercises, accompanied by a very useful, detailed PDF sheet full of teaching ideas including extension ideas, web sites where you can hear Elgar’s music, leaflet about Elgar on bank notes, etc. Illustrated by Will Zawadzki, Abingdon & Witney College.

The Average Briton is an interactive whiteboard cloze activity originally aimed at L1-2 ‘English at Work’ ESOL students but also great for literacy and numeracy students and ideal for prompting discussion about place value, British society, and much more!

Please note you must have the Smart notebook software installed on your computer in order to open, view and use this resource http://smarttech.com/

A simple but very effective set of topical PowerPoints that helps students develop a feel for the shape of words and word boundaries. Also great for stimulating discussion, increasing vocabulary, and encouraging the use of dictionaries.
The seocnd PPT has the added challeng of an extra , spurious letter.

Fill-in verb posters is a set of two posters – best laminated so you can fill in desired verb with a dry wipe pen. 2 pages covering 1, 2, 3 person singular and plural.

Written for ESOL students with good basic numeracy skills who were taking the E3 multiple choice test without attending numeracy classes. However these notes are brilliant for any Entry 3 numeracy student.
Note you can read more about the E3 multiple choice tests on our related blog post

A great set of ice breaker quizzes for all levels. 6 options. Can you write down a song for each letter of the alphabet? Or a food, film, TV programme, famous person, etc.
Students could be given a different quiz sheet each and be encouraged to wander round and ask other students to help fill the gaps. Alternatively students could work in teams – the first team to complete an entire sheet wins!

A beautiful set of 5 games and activities at text, sentence and word level. Includes word fill, word search, cloze exercise and more. Ideal for end of term lesson (or the beginning of the autumn term when holidays are being discussed) with answer sheets and teaching ideas.

Mixed ESOL resources for E1 beginners is a wonderful collection of resources for new students. 9 pages cover likes/dislikes, key vocabulary such as numbers, months, etc.; simple comprehension; asking and giving personal information plus a final review to check that students have remembered everything.