Adult Literacy, Functional English, and GCSE Resources

Five scenarios and tasks designed to practice for the discussion part of the speaking exam (NCFE task 2; new spec). 

Topics include watching sport, fitness clubs, life skills, transferable work skills and alternative school provision (learning at home and in the community).

Is desired, the sheet can be cut up into 5 different tasks to use on different occasions / with different groups. 

Editor's note

I am using these examples to inspire students who find it very difficult to think of subject matter to write. There are examples of letters, emails and articles. The questions are from Edexcel past papers or designed by me, in that format. 

Editor's notes

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. 

Article from the BBC about the Northern Lights being visible in the UK during a solar storm, and 6 questions modelled on the L1 and L2 reading paper from Edexcel as a reading revision activity. 

Editor's notes

You can't get more topical than this!  Questions cover fact/opinion, vocabulary, language features, inference and more! There is also a short writing prompt. Great for last minute summer revision. 

I used this in L2 only and mixed L1-2 classes. I gave the learners the poster to read, along with the learner starter activity sheet to write in their answers. Once everyone had filled in as much as they could (some learners had support workers so answers were discussed as they were written down), the whole class discussed the answers and I shared the answers on a screen. 

An updated version of Imogen Stewart's ever-popular PPT and PDF resource of the same name. The original focused on Vicki Pollard in Little Britain. This adapted version has updated graphics (the original is now 18 years old!) and continues to uses the idea of different dress codes and situations to cleverly introduce the idea of formality/informality (which the teacher can apply to reading, writing or speaking as required). The last slide is a fill in table where learners can add examples from their own vocabularies.

A double lesson Power Point with Level 1 and Level 2 reading and writing questions. The lesson explores the controversy around violent music and the relationship between music and behaviour. You Tube links  add detail and context to the debate in an engaging and thought provoking way. Lesson 1 focuses on the Reading exam with Level 1 and Level 2 questions that can be displayed on the board to reduce printing. Texts A and B explore the two sides of Drill music and its influence on young people.

Updated Apr 19 2024 (corrections made to pages 1&3 of the main PDF and page 2 of "Your Budget")

This resources uses the Spring 2024 budget and makes it accessible for learners on L1 and L2 English courses. The resource gives them the budget break down and some comprehension questions based on L1 and L2 reading exams. 

Learners are then asked to design their own budget and think about why they would give money to certain areas outlined in the budget. 

March 23 2024 - please note this is a new upload with different contributor details to the earlier version of this resource. With sincere apologies to the correct contributor Claire. Discussion, reading and writing tasks for Level 1-2 Functional Skills English. Very topical as lots of people have tattoos now.