Ice breaker

An activity to help students to get to know each other. Ideal for new classes / student groups.

Young Adult Novels: opening lines and mini tasks (GCSE)

A selection of reading (inference) tasks and creative writing prompts on the opening lines of Young Adult novels.

Editor's Notes

Written for GCSE learners. Another highly original and engaging resource from Steph :)

Covers opening lines from seven YA novels including John Green (Paper Towns), Rin Chupeco (The Never Tilting World) and Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me).

Level

GCSE L1-5

English

GCSE Writing AO5(a) Use tone, style and register for different forms, purposes & audiences

GCSE Reading AO1a Identify/interpret explicit & implicit information & ideas

Language Feature revision: The Taylor Swift Edition

A video of Taylor Swift songs (lyrics) that enables learners to identify language features such as personification, similes, metaphors, rhetorical questions, first person, direct address, hyperbole, alliteration and informal language. Learners could also question and explore the use of punctuation used in the songs.

Editor's notes

Marvellous and exceedingly topical. Makes a great ice breaker or starter. Well done Steph :)

Level

Level 1

Level 2

English

FE L1.12 Recognise that language & other textual features can be varied to suit different audiences & purposes

FE L2.14 Understand how textual features/devices can shape meaning for different audiences/purposes

FE L2.17 Analyse texts, of different levels of complexity, recognising their use of vocabulary and identifying levels of formality and bias

Context

Art Film Media Music Radio TV

Capital letter (proper noun) dominoes - version 2

A wonderful kinaesthetic card matching game designed to help learners remember when to use capital letters.

This version was kindly adapted and updated by Emma Gentili to make it more suitable for today’s college learners.

Level

Entry Level 2

Entry Level 3

Level 1

English

FE E1.12 Use capital letter for pronoun ‘I’ and proper nouns

FE E2.13 Use basic punctuation correctly (e.g. full stops, question, exclamation marks)

FE E3.13 Use a range of punctuation correctly (e.g. full stops, question marks, exclamation marks, commas)

FE L1.19 Use a range of punctuation correctly (e.g. full stops, question marks, exclamation marks, commas, possessive apostrophes)

FS Eng SL&C Discussion

Language Feature Bingo

A game of language feature bingo, with answers, for L1 and L2 learners.

Editor's notes

I love this! A simple idea perfectly executed (and easily adapted or added to).
Note that although this is a PPT resource you do not need PPT to use it in the classroom.

Level

Level 1

Level 2

English

FE L1.12 Recognise that language & other textual features can be varied to suit different audiences & purposes

FE L2.14 Understand how textual features/devices can shape meaning for different audiences/purposes

FE L1.24 Use format, structure & language appropriate for audience & purpose

FE L2.27 Use language & register (e.g. persuasive techniques, supporting evidence, specialist words) to suit audience & purpose

What's in a name? Ice-breaker for Functional English

Why are names important? What can we learn from them?

Slides for L1 and L2 English learners to find out more about the importance of names while building their English skills. (For example: vocabulary, sentence structure, punctuation, research, discussion and a mini writing task).

Editor's notes

Ideal as an ice breaker at the start of the year - although the wealth of material, discussion points and links mean it could easily fill an entire lesson! Topics covered include:

Level

Level 1

Level 2

English

FS Eng L1.4 Communicate information / ideas / opinions clearly & accurately on range of topics

FS Eng L2.5 Communicate information/ideas/opinions clearly/effectively with further detail/development if required

FE L1.13 Use reference materials & appropriate strategies for a range of purposes, inc. to find word meanings

FE L1.17 Read & understand a range of specialist words in context

FE L1.18 Use knowledge of punctuation to aid understanding of texts

FE L1.22 Communicate information, ideas & opinions clearly, coherently & accurately

FE L2.23 Communicate information, ideas and opinions clearly, coherently and effectively

Context

History, culture, museums, libraries

Find someone who

This activity can be used as an icebreaker or as resource when teaching about 3rd person agreement in the present tense.

Learners ask 'Do you ..... ?' and use the answers in the box to complete the question however after the Tutor's monitoring they should realise that the answer form cannot be used for the question form.

The questionnaire has 16 boxes but according to time and size of class, it can be reduced by folding the questionnaire so only 8 questions are used instead.

Level

Entry Level 1

Entry Level 2

Entry Level 3

Level 1

English

FE E1.5 Respond to questions about specific information

FE E2.3 Respond appropriately to straightforward questions

FE E1.4 Make requests & ask straightforward questions using appropriate terms & registers

FE E2.2 Make requests & ask clear questions appropriately in different contexts

ESOL

ESOL Sc/E1.3a Ask for personal details

ESOL Sc/E2.2c Ask for personal details

ESOL Sc/E3.3b Ask questions to obtain personal or factual information

ESOL Lr/E1.4b Recognise different question words

ESOL Lr/E2.5b Respond to requests for information

ESOL Lr/E3.5b Respond to requests for information

ESOL E1 pre-Entry introductory lessons

An introduction lesson for ESOL/Pre Entry to help build learner confidence and introduce them to college rules/expectations.

Editor's note

Two complete and very welcoming lessons. Also covers asking and responding to questions about personal information, recognising letters of the alphabet, and classroom equipment. Lovely :)

Level

Entry Level 1

English

AL SLlr/E1.4

AL SLc/E1.3

Adult Lit Rw/E1.1 Have limited, meaningful sight vocabulary of words, signs, symbols

Adult Lit Rw/E1.3 Recognise the letters of the alphabet in both upper and lower case

Adult Lit Ww/E1.2 Write the letters of the alphabet using upper and lower case

Pre-entry

pre-Entry SLlr/M8.1 Listen and respond to familiar people in simple/personal contexts

pre-Entry SLlr/M8.2 Listen to & answer simple questions about personal details/experiences/events & narratives

pre-Entry SLc/M8.1 Use key words, signs, symbols when communicating about own experiences, and to recount a narrative

pre-Entry Rw/M8.1Recognise letters of the alphabet by shape, name, sound

pre-Entry Rw/M8.3 Recognise & read a growing no. of words signs symbols

pre-Entry Ww/M8.1 Write with appropriate grip making many controlled letter shapes & using a conventional sequence of letters

ESOL

ESOL Lr/E1.4a Listen and respond to requests for personal information

ESOL Lr/E1.4b Recognise different question words

ESOL Sc/E1.3a Ask for personal details

ESOL Rw/E1.1a Recognise a limited number of words, signs and symbols

ESOL Rw/E1.3a Identify letters of alphabet in both upper & lower case

ESOL Ww/E1.2a Form the letters of the alphabet using upper and lower case

At what age can you...? Legal ages, modals, if, unless

4 Oct 2017. Updated information on source material added

A reading activity on legal age limits in different parts of the UK. Includes: education, voting, driving, marriage and work. Based on materials at: http://esol.britishcouncil.org/content/learners/uk-life/be-safe-uk/what…

Level

Entry Level 2

Entry Level 3

English

Functional English reading

ESOL

ESOL Ws/E3.1a Write using complex sentences

ESOL Sd/E3.1d Express views and opinions

ESOL Sc/E3.4e Give directions and instructions

ESOL Sc/E2.2a Make requests: ask for things or action

ESOL Rt/E3.4a Extract the main points and ideas, and predict words from context.

ESOL Lr/E3.2d Listen for grammatical detail

Context

News, Politics & Government items

Personal Data Dominoes

Three sets of dominoes to use in warm-up and for letter and word recognition activities. The first set, for pre-Entry ESOL and Literacy learners with very low levels of letter and word recognition, matches lower case to capital letter versions, the second set is a set of “doubles”, which can be used alongside the first. The third set, for pre-Entry / Entry 1 ESOL learners, matches a category to an example. Each set has 17 dominoes, so 4 each for a group of 4 learners, plus one to start.

Level

Entry Level 1

Entry Level 2

Entry Level 3

English

Rw/E3.2

Rw/E2.1

Adult Lit Rw/E1.1 Have limited, meaningful sight vocabulary of words, signs, symbols

Functional English reading

Form filling

Pre-entry

pre-Entry Rw/M8.3 Recognise & read a growing no. of words signs symbols

ESOL

ESOL Rw/E3.2a Read & understand words / phrases commonly used on forms

ESOL Rw/E2.1a Recognise words on forms related to personal information

ESOL Rw/E1.1a Recognise a limited number of words, signs and symbols

Context

Employment skills & Public services

Capital letters consequences game

A recap game to practise applying knowledge of when to use capital letters. Learners supply names, dates, places and objects to create a mis-matched story.

It could also be used as an icebreaker.

Level

Entry Level 3

Entry Level 2

English

Functional English - writing

Ws/E3.4

Ws/E2.4

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