Adult Literacy, Functional English, and GCSE Resources

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.

This resource will help learners recognise words related to personal information. Learners will read, match, fill in the gaps and identify the number of syllables.

Three sets of dominoes to use in warm-up and for letter and word recognition activities. The first set, for pre-Entry ESOL and Literacy learners with very low levels of letter and word recognition, matches lower case to capital letter versions, the second set is a set of “doubles”, which can be used alongside the first. The third set, for pre-Entry / Entry 1 ESOL learners, matches a category to an example. Each set has 17 dominoes, so 4 each for a group of 4 learners, plus one to start.

This is a game to form new words using syllables.All these words have three parts to them and multiple words can be made using different parts in different order

I have used this with L1 and L2 learners and they love it. I let them work in groups – no more than 5 otherwise it gets a bit too busy and confusing.

You may need to have pre-taught some common prefixes and suffixes and rules; how prefixes never change the spelling of the root word they join, etc..

This resource helps learners hear rhymes and recognise corresponding letters/digraphs, rimes and onsets etc. Take simple limericks and poems and get your learners to put them together.

I created my own limericks to match work we had been doing on long vowel sounds (it is not that difficult to do once you get started). Well-known poems and nursery rhymes also proved particularly popular as many knew them already by heart from childhood and some were doing them now with their children.

A classic anonymous poem that has the correct spelling but the wrong words.

Read the poem aloud to your students before they have sight of it. Then give them page 1 of the work sheet.

Root word family cards are two sets of flash cards that can be used to visualise the concept of root words to entry level and L1 students.

The entry level cards contain a number of root words and their word families, with a picture representation of each word. The level one sheet contains a higher level of vocabulary and the pictures have been removed.

Lesson Ideas

This is a set of ‘shun’ suffix word cards to accompany the “Which suffix -cian -ssion, sion or tion?” resource (see below).

Print the sheets onto card or have them laminated, then cut up the individual root word cards for learners to sort under the correct headings.

Visual colour-coded resource, explaining the main plural spelling rules. Created for E2/E3 learners, but could also be useful for all visual learners working between E2-L2.

Includes: colour-coded fact sheet, blank table, worksheet and flash cards to cut out and laminate. Could be used for a number of different activities.

A Powerpoint suitable for an end of lesson assessment. Includes omissive and possessive apostrophes.