Adult Literacy, Functional English, and GCSE Resources

A powerpoint presentation showing incorrect use of the apostrophe and comma. Useful for discussions to show the correct use and for learners to say why the apostrophe is wrong. Has ‘its’ and ‘it’s’ and omissive and possessive apostrophes.

An interactive presentation to explain the meaning of nouns, verbs and adjectives and an accompanying hands-on activity to sort words into nouns, verbs and adjectives. This is good to use early in a course as it is fun and gets learners working in groups,

This handout describes the basic sentence types as used in the English language. It can be used to introduce or reinforce the concepts.

Editor’s note
This also makes a useful handout / reminder for vocational teachers who are embedding Functional English.

A resource based on a current (Jan 2016) Huffington Post news report about a piece of homework that was sent home for a child to learn which contained incorrect spellings.
Learners are to identify and correct the errors, write a full explanation of their thoughts on the matter and write an appropriate email to the head teacher.

Editor’s note
A wonderful, real-life and very functional task!

A reading comprehension based on the BBC website’s coverage of celebrations around the world.

Tips and four tasks designed to help Level 2 Functional English learners think about how they can identify BIAS in texts.

A resource designed to be used with Abigail Illife’s excellent Plural Spelling rules resource [ see ‘See also’ below].

Learners can practise their proofreading skills and apply the spelling rules. Give learners the first sheet and ask them to highlight the mistakes. As well as spelling mistakes there are capital letters and the US spelling of centre.

A L1/2 Functional English Card match activity. Serves as a tactile supplement/plenary to identifying the contrasts in the tone of language used in factual, opinionated and biased statements.

A L1/L2 Functional English card match resource. Serves as a tactile supplement/plenary for the recognition of text and layout features assessed at Level 1/2. Colour coded to aid learners in organising the columns, this resource allows learners to place the layout feature next to its descriptor and layout effect.

A movable PowerPoint that can be used as a starter, revision, recap, group activity, etc. Covering ALL FOUR purposes: INFORMATIVE, INSTRUCTIVE, PERSUASIVE and DESCRIPTIVE. Can be used in conjunction with the ‘comparison table’ which contains the same information in the simple and quick reference table (see my other resources).