Adult Literacy, Functional English, and GCSE Resources

Rugby themed task on reading (use of quotations and dialogue, facts versus opinions), researching and writing a short article. Topic links to ICT, suitable for use during e.g. Rugby World Cup, Six Nations Tournament or with any group keen on sport![img_assist|nid=5708|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=100|height=71]

A lovely unit of work from Australia. Designed to be used during and after the games.
Cloze exercise, web research, discussion and self-evaluation.

Editor’s note
Apologies, the resource file had gone missing! Re-attached Dec 9, 2013

A whole session activity based on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. I used it to build on some dictionary work we hade been doing in previous sessions as well as paragraph writing and report writing. We had also been talking about open and closed questions so I have used examples of each in this resource to see if learners spotted them (they did!)

We are based in the same building as the library so there is lots of information handily available about local events but I also had internet enabled laptops in the classroom.

Learners must choose the next manager of the England football team. Using the task sheet to guide them, they must research, collate and present information for five candidates and then make the final choice.

There is scope for plenty of lively discussion around the choices made and also about what the manager’s job entails.

A Power Point presentation is included as an example, but can also be printed out to use in some of the additional activities described.

A short project for L1 Functional Skills or ESOL, wherein students research aspects of a foreign holiday destination and produce a piece of persuasive advertising based upon findings.

A great project that covers many Functional maths and Functional English criteria. You win the lottery, buy a mobile phone shop and have to furnish it from catalogues and/or Internet sites.

Learn about budgeting, displaying data, working with areas and floor plans, bank statements, rounding, estimating, and much more. Everything must be written up as a comprehensive report with a clear conclusion (a great guidance page on report writing is included in the resource).

Originally used pre-2010-election in a mixed ability (E1-L2) group but also makes an excellent Functional English resource at any time.
Detailed 2.5 hour lesson plan includes discussion, mini-presentations, web research and paired writing. Includes internet research guidance sheets, scaffolded gap-fill sheet to help with the web research task and a sample MP information sheet. Ideal for (and fully mapped to) E3-L2 Functional English.

A series of tasks designed as both an embedded literacy / Functional English assignment and also as a model to assist Art and Design students who had to make a portfolio describing various types of fabric.
It would be of interest to other learners who enjoy fashion subjects, leading to an extended project on silk in the fashion industry. Includes reading, watching a video, discussion, research and writing.

09-10 Football Season is a wonderful way to engage mixed ability groups of footie fans!
Covers formulating an argument, discussion, recognising points of view – facts & opinions, writing sentences & paragraphs.
Maths aspects include extracting information from tables, averages, ratios, and addition & subtraction.

Investigate the possibility of a college stocking fairly traded products in its canteen. Covers many reading, writing, ICT, numeracy, speaking and listening skills inc. data handling, report writing, creating charts and questionnaires, giving a presentation, etc. Ideal for embedding all three functional skills (or literacy, numeracy and ICT) especially for business students.