Adult Literacy, Functional English, and GCSE Resources

A humorous E2-3 story accompanied by E3-L1 comprehension, grammar, spelling and vocabulary questions (making it ideal for mixed ability classes).

18 words to sort according to plural spelling rules. Ideal for display on a smartboard.
Created with Wordle , a brilliant on-line, completely free word cloud creator.
See our blog articles for more Wordle teaching and learning ideas:
http://skillsworkshop.blogspot.com/2008/07/using-wordle-in-classroom.ht…

Covers both regular and irregular plurals (10).
The great thing about this activity is that it is created from a template (available in the Activity Toolkit, in the Smart Notebook Gallery) and can be quickly and easily edited to include specific spellings for your students.
See Dave’s other Notebook word games below.
Please note you must have the Smart notebook software installed on your computer in order to open, view and use this resource http://smarttech.com/

Looking at Newspapers is a wonderful example of creative differentiated teaching across all levels (E1-L2). A detailed lesson description, resources and introductory PPT are included. The lesson uses Kipling’s “What and Why and When, And How and Where and Who” to help students analyse newspaper reports and interview other students, or their teacher, to create their own reports.

Three Wordle puzzles, each with 20 pairs of homophones and forty clues. Includes clues for each pair of homophones. Can you find them all?
Wordle is a brilliant on-line, completely free word cloud creator.
See our blog articles for more Wordle teaching and learning ideas:
http://skillsworkshop.blogspot.com/2008/07/using-wordle-in-classroom.ht…

Lists 30 pairs of common homophones (not to all be used at once!) with plenty of ideas on using them in spelling, sentence and discussion work.

Celebrating Diwali cleverly combines details about the Hindu festival with information on the common homophones: there – their – they’re.

Questioning for understanding is a really useful help sheet that encourages learners to ask relevant questions (any topic, any level). Based on Kipling’s “What and Why and When, And How and Where and Who” with teaching ideas and useful links.

For a related resource using the same idea to investigate and write newspaper reports please see Ellie Walsh’s Looking at Newspapers (below).

Crossword for spelling and vocabulary / prefix work.

A paired activity based on the well known web site provides an engaging way to introduce or revise this tricky topic.
Emma suggests that a useful extension activity is for learners to take pictures on their phones – where appropriate – of apostrophe ‘abuse’ they come across and bring them in to class for discussion.