Adult Literacy, Functional English, and GCSE Resources

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Three differentiated writing tasks / practice papers on the same theme. First, you apply to appear in a Christmas Concert at the village hall. Later, you hear you have got a place in the concert and write an email inviting your friends to come and watch.

I wrote these tasks as an informal summative assessment end-of-term activity for a mixed level E1-E3 group of 16-19 year-olds, but they are suitable for any age group.

A truly functional set of everyday reading and writing tasks based on medicine instructions. Activities include:

• reading comprehension questions
• matching instructions to the correct tube/bottle/packet
• writing instructions
• cloze exercise
• word search
  Fully mapped to E2 Functional English and with extra teaching tips.

A set of posters / cards / checklists designed to prompt discussion, check learning and keep a record of student progression. Designed for Entry Level Functional Maths and English learners in an FE setting but suitable for all levels and subjects.
This resource was inspired by discussion on the NCETM (National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics) site about “understanding versus doing” and I would like to thank the forum members for their ideas and feedback.

My Entry Level SPAG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) Marking Sheet is a simple tick sheet that can be used by students to check each other’s work for spelling and grammar errors. Helpful for encouraging groups of learners to ‘peer assess’ and also reinforces what to look for when proofreading work.

The sheet is a simplified version of the spelling and grammar skills covered in the Entry Functional Skills English Standards. It includes space for comments and also indicates which skills relate to each of the Entry levels via straightforward indices.

Excellent practice for Edexcel style Functional Skills English reading test. 20 questions based on two simplified texts: a job advert and a formal letter inviting the reader to a job interview. Fully mapped to all the E2 reading coverage and range statements.

Based loosely on C&G E3 literacy exam papers, this covers many of the criteria through a seasonal topic.
It includes reading comprehension questions (E3-L1), a dictionary and alphabetical order task (E2-E3), form filling (E2-E3) and letter writing (E3-L2). There’s also plenty of scope for discussion. The form filling and write-to-your MP tasks are also suitable for Functional English. Ideal for mixed ability groups.

A student friendly resource. Uses the Functional Skills English Skills Standards / Coverage and Range information to keep track of students’ progress.

Three separate 3-page documents to track success in reading, writing, and speaking – listening – communication.

Two start of term quiz or diagnostic exercises (or use simply to get learners into the swing of things!) cover reading comprehension, sentence structure and punctuation, writing and spelling.
One for E2-E3, one for L1-L2.

In the style of City and Guilds Entry Level assignments – covers planning, drafting and proof reading a letter from Lapland. With a mark sheet for E1, E2 and E3 to allow for differentiated assessment.

Quick diagnostic test to assess students’ knowledge of ‘parts of speech’. Very useful and also makes a good launching point for work on sentence structure.