Contextual Resources

Worksheets and tasks around the theme of emergencies. Written for ESOL but also suitable for adult literacy and Functionakl English.

This is a resource for teaching compound words to mixed ability groups. There are five different word match activities and two help sheets.

I use the first two activities, sports and food, with E1-2 learners. Depending on their ability you can either give the learners both topics at once or give them one at a time to make the activity easier. For very low level students I’d give the learners one topic at a time and a help sheet.

21 questions to answer about dos and don’ts on your CV preparation. Are the statements true, false or is there some discretion about what you can do? As a team quiz it prompts discussion and lets learners express their opinions and justify the points made. Can be used as a revision or introductory tool prior to creating a CV in Functional English, Functional ICT or work skills classes.
Answers are included.

A set of cards where learners have to find percentages of money.
Note that it is percentage of not off – this should be discussed.

Use as a paired game. Learners share the cards between them, then both turn over one card each. They work out how much their card is worth then the “winner” or person whose card is worth more keeps both cards. Play continues until 1 player has all the cards.

Adapted from Emma Shaw’s Fractions of quantities top trump cards see below.

A powerpoint to spark discussion and introduce the topic of formal and informal language and choosing which is appropriate for different social and work situations. Aimed at E3-L1 Functional English learners.

The PPT can be used with the word match up game, which gets learners thinking about the difference between formal and informal language. Laminate the page and cut up into individual word cards.

An activity to explore money management and negative numbers. Be prepared to signpost students if need be.

The activity starts with discussing who is most likely to get into debt and then by recognising that anyone can if they don’t have good money skills.

This is an activity on New Year. It was written for an E3 ESOL class but could be adapted for E2 fairly easily too. There is a reading comprehension, a group activity, writing practice and also an optional cut-up “top Ten” resolutions activity.

I haven’t done a lesson plan to go with the resources as I think they could be easily adapted and used in different ways.

A first person autobiographical account of life in outback Australia.
Exercises include comprehension questions using when, where etc.
A revision of past tense verbs – regular and irregular.
A fill the gap using the correct verb tense.
A writing prompt for students to write about themselves – emphasising the use of conjunctions and short paragraphs.
A Wordsearch.
Includes a glossary of Australian words used in the text.

Matching exercise for preEntry and E1 learners to recognise signs and their names.

A truly functional set of everyday reading and writing tasks based on medicine instructions. Activities include:

• reading comprehension questions
• matching instructions to the correct tube/bottle/packet
• writing instructions
• cloze exercise
• word search
  Fully mapped to E2 Functional English and with extra teaching tips.