Adult Literacy, Functional English, and GCSE Resources

I put this together when I found so many of my learners trying to hone their employability skills did not know what a lot of the words on job descriptions meant. 

Resource 1 (Definition matching cards: job skills and attributes): I laminated these and cut them up and they worked in pairs or threes to match them up.

There are two other linked resources, as below, to help students with getting to grips with the keywords used in Job Descriptions and Person Specifications. 

Short sets of words for alphabetic sorting.   These can be used with literacy or ESOL learners.  I found they worked well at the beginning of each session while learners were still arriving into the class.  They work well as individual or pairs exercises.

The first set works best when each list is cut up and laminated as individual words in each group, so learners can sort them kinaesthetically.  

Get your learners thinking outside the box with this unusual warm up quiz that works well at all levels

Also provides discussion prompts and makes a great introduction to spelling compound words.

These three simple resources are aimed for teaching the layout features and conventions of informal and formal letter writing.  There are three templates: 

A resource adapted to include Audience, Purpose, Format and Features (PAFF) from a Skillsworkshop resource titled Audience and Purpose (Emma Shaw, 2007 - listed under "See Also").

This has been useful to review and consolidate PAFF for reading and then later for writing.

Reformed Functional English assessments include group discussion at all levels beyond Entry 1.  This useful, 3 page planner can be used (with varying amounts of teacher support) from E2 to L2. Covers everything from choosing a topic, jotting down initial ideas, and making extended contributions. Also describes the different roles withing a discussion and useful phrases for each role.

With detailed Functional English mapping.   

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.  

A multi-skill worksheet that incorporates speaking, listening, reading and writing, based on a short (1:22) BBC news video about a 100th birthday trip to London. Aimed at E3 / L1, but suitable for higher level E2 and for L2 as a recap (for L2 - elicit examples of the grammar and instructions beforehand).

Key learning outcomes: learners will:

This is a basic editable word wheel which you can print, cut out and attach together with a brass paper fastener.
Learners can concentrate on one word at a time. Word wheels can be used for building vocabulary, spelling practice and much more. Suitable for all levels of Functional Skills and ESOL.
Instructions and ideas are included within the PPT. For example:
Stretchy:

• Write positive or negative words in the table
• Look up words that are unfamiliar

Stretchier:

A list of simple sentences, some of which are common sayings. They all contain a word which has more than one meaning. The list can be used to improve vocabulary, and also to show students the importance of context in understanding the meaning of a word. Could be used as a warm-up for a reading lesson.