Contextual Resources

This is a great session starter. Students will work on their sentence construction and vocabulary with a card game that allows them to experiment with word order and effective word choice. Students have to put the words into a sensible order, even if the subject of their film is far from sensible.

In this game, students compete to make the scariest film title, or to sabotage other people’s film titles. It is a light hearted and fun game. The film titles created can also become writing prompts.

This was produced as practice assessment material for a group of learners working towards E3 Functional English (with City & Guilds). They were struggling with producing the writing in the time allowed so we practised several short, sharp topics. Planning methods were tackled separately.

Editor’s note
Fully mapped to the E2-L1 Functional English writing criteria.

A writing activity that requires learners to write 2 emails suitable for the workplace. Tasks are loosely based on the type of writing tasks required for City & Guilds Functional English at E3. Also involves searching for a suitable gift (Argos book or web site).

Editor’s note
Fully mapped to the E2-L1 Functional English writing criteria.

This is a combination of speaking & listening, note taking & writing, that I have used successfully as an ice breaker with new groups. It involves learners talking to several people and finding out about their food likes & dislikes (plus allergies, religious considerations etc) before planning a menu for a dinner party. The menu must be acceptable to all the guests! Finally each learner produces their menu presented in a conventional style.

This resource arose from a conversation with a learner who had lost their debit card a number of times in the cash machine because they couldn’t read the screen fast enough.

I used it by discussing each of the screens with learners and then having them work through the reading text and the accompanying exercises. Even better, if you have access to the internet, you can show different images of ATM screens and discuss them.

Simplified texts and DARTS activities with follow up writing tasks at E1 and E2.
Based on material from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust website http://hmd.org.uk/
Prior to completing the reading and writing tasks the class listened to a podcast of a survivor talking about their experiences.The material from both the listening activity (http://hmd.org.uk/resources/podcasts/i-was-there)

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.

A straightforward addition and subtraction worksheet which can be used a starter or a worksheet for adult learners. Also useful for teenagers doing budgeting, independent living, etc.

This is a practical handling data task at L1 and L2 which uses the Internet to find the necesssary data in order to complete a Expenses claim form.

I work with Landbased students most of whom visit an exhibition at the Bath & West show ground. In this task they have to work out how much it will cost them to travel to the site and how much the entry fee is, then enter this information onto a expenses claim form as if they were submitting it to an employed to reclaim their costs.

For L2 students they need to find the actual cost of the fuel they use for the journey.

Hands-on extension tasks for various Skillsworkshop cocktail and smoothie resources. (Original resources can be found under “see also” below).