Adult Literacy, Functional English, and GCSE Resources

Colourful graphic organiser that will allow learners to explore Word Class, challenge themselves, and think about how they can use examples in sentences. 

Includes dual coding images as prompts.

Two scaffolded writing tasks that can used alone or as a follow up to the reading and related tasks in Dee Gets Fit (Rachel Emmett, 2009).

The first is just simple scaffold for E1/2 learners to record their ideas on keeping fit and healthy. The second is for E3 students to write a recipe for a healthy meal. Both these tasks would be most effective when preceded by a class or small group discussion and the creation of a word bank. They could also be used when teaching about instructional texts.

An Entry 3 mock exam paper that follows the format for City & Guilds.

Based on a leaflet about gardening.

Editor's note

A marvellous practice paper! Suitable for all E3 Functional English students - whether or not their awarding body is C&G.  Covers almost all aspects of E3 Functional English reading & almost all writing SCS (subject content statements). 

This is targeted towards learners preparing for the Entry 2 Functional Skills Writing exam.  It uses the Entry 1 Cat Care text created by Emma Gentili (go to "See also"), and can be used in mixed ability classes together with the E1 resource. 

Editor's note

Love it when skillsworkshop users recycle resources! A great adaptation of the original E1 version :) 

I put this together when I found so many of my learners trying to hone their employability skills did not know what a lot of the words on job descriptions meant. 

Resource 1 (Definition matching cards: job skills and attributes): I laminated these and cut them up and they worked in pairs or threes to match them up.

There are two other linked resources, as below, to help students with getting to grips with the keywords used in Job Descriptions and Person Specifications. 

These three simple resources are aimed for teaching the layout features and conventions of informal and formal letter writing.  There are three templates: 

I wrote this resource to explore the Reformed Entry Level 2 reading and writing content, and the format of the new assessments from various awarding organisations (AO). 

Five large A4 templates for web page, letter, article, email and a speech/talk.  They can be used in a variety of ways depending upon learner levels and lesson objectives. E.g. E1-E2 students can discuss and decide upon the text type and/or where they might see such document, E2-E3 learners can use them to plan or draft work. At L1 they could be displayed onscreen as a brief reminder to use different layouts for different purposes or for reading revision (of organisational features).

Learners use a gap-fill to complete positive and negative restaurant reviews.
I designed this resource to encourage learners to use a thesaurus to help improve their vocabulary and use more interesting adjectives.

I’ve used it with Entry level and Level 1/2 learners.

Editor's note

Fully mapped to the new 2018 Functional English content which comes into effect September 2019.

I’m using this activity to give learners a writing frame for a piece of creative writing. I want them to really think about purpose of text when they are creating it, so they have to pick the format, style and tone of their work and plan it out.