Functional English reading

This is an exercise designed to have learners find particular information in a table. They then have to enter some information on circuit details forms – they also have to use an atlas or similar to identify the correct national flag for each circuit.

This is a popular resource for all-male classes where they already may have an interest in Formula One. It can make a great classroom display as well. As an extension, they have “plotted” the circuits on a blank world map, which helps for general knowledge/geography.

This worksheet was created to encourage students to recognize the features of written instructions (numbered lists to show the chronological order of the steps – use of imperative verbs) and explanations (headings written as questions which the text answers).

Editor’s note
Functional English mapping has been added.

Simulation of completing an online CV. Very easy to use, fill in the boxes and print after completion.

Entry Level 3 Functional Skills English interactive PowerPoint presentation on scanning, skimming, reading for detail and using images in text.
Includes a paired work activity on screen 9 for which you’ll need a range of texts including plenty of dictionaries, depending on you class size.

Simulations of email and online banking registration forms. Can be used in succession, as for the banking registration form you need an email address. When you press the “create account” button it will open the printing menu. Good luck!

Photos and pictures to match with accounts of real emergency situations. All in the present tense. All the accounts are true. Accounts can be cut in to strips and given to pairs of learners who can put them in to a sequence to tell a story. Leads to discussion on how we tell a story, and how we sequence sentences to make sense.
Lots of new, real life vocabulary to provoke discussion.
Some stories shorter and simpler than others to allow for differentiation in group.

An E3-L1 Functional Skills reading resource modelled on C&G assessments. The activities are based around two documents, one from the BBC news website and the other a leaflet advertising a private police service. May prompt discussion on the nature of crime, punishment and the role of the police force in society.

This is a news article about the sinking of the Costa Concordia. It is focused on an account of the situation as reported by the local mayor.
The article is accompanied by questions about what might be inferred from the account, what might be the mayor’s opinion and whether or not the account is biased. The questions have been used with adults studying for Edexcel Functional Skills at Level 2.

This is a news article about the death of Whitney Houston followed by a series of questions which ask the reader to decide whether statements in the artice are true, false or inferred.

I have used it with several groups of adult learners who were working towards Edexcel level 2 Functional Skills. They really enjoyed discussiong the article. I did make an answer sheet but I changed it so many times in the light of discussion with different groups that I decided it was best to let them make up their own minds.

This resource helps learners hear rhymes and recognise corresponding letters/digraphs, rimes and onsets etc. Take simple limericks and poems and get your learners to put them together.

I created my own limericks to match work we had been doing on long vowel sounds (it is not that difficult to do once you get started). Well-known poems and nursery rhymes also proved particularly popular as many knew them already by heart from childhood and some were doing them now with their children.