Adult Literacy, Functional English, and GCSE Resources

How to format and plan a formal letter or email for English functional skills.
Word document / template.

Editor’s note
Two very useful editable Word documents – one for a letter, one for an email.
[5/12/17] Minor edits to the formal letter template

Simulations of email and online banking registration forms. Can be used in succession, as for the banking registration form you need an email address. When you press the “create account” button it will open the printing menu. Good luck!

This is a topical lesson, looking at the Japanese tsunami disaster and its coverage in the media.

It introduces students to identifying facts and opinions. It also allows students to discuss their own views (appropriately) about this disaster. Students are also given the opportunity to write their own newspaper article based around the facts of the events.

Housework is a set of three related resources:
Housework is a very funny video (with a rather predictable ending!) accompanied by words and jolly music and designed to introduce, complement or summarise the two related resources below.
Although aimed at M8-E2, ESOL/Literacy groups of all levels will enjoy this video and it is bound to prompt disucssion. Supplied as a zipped WMV (Windows Media Video) file (6.8 MB). A big thank you must go to Janet Fletcher who co-authored this video!

Lovely interactive crossword. 13 clues. Would make a good group activity on an interactive whiteboard.

To run, unzip the file (select “Extract all files”) into a new folder and click on *partsofspeechhotpotcrossword *to run.

Created with the excellent freeware program Hot Potatoes http://hotpot.uvic.ca/
Please see Karen’s separate “How to use Hot Potatoes to make a crossword” ICT guide for further information.

Lovely interactive crossword. 8 clues. Would make a good group activity on an interactive whiteboard.

To run, unzip the file (select “Extract all files”) into a new folder and click on punctuationhotpotcrossword to run.

Created with the excellent freeware program Hot Potatoes http://hotpot.uvic.ca/
Please see Karen’s separate “How to use Hot Potatoes to make a crossword” ICT guide for further information.

A great auditory slant to there/their/they’re and to/two/too. You must listen carefully to a sentence and then select the correct homophone. Short, sweet and very good because it forces the students to focus on the meaning of the word in the sentence.

A Flash interactive activity that runs in your browser (and you will need speakers).

To run the quiz unzip the files (select “Extract all files”) into a new folder and click on homophone_match.html. Do not try to run directly from the zip folder or you will not see all the graphics or hear the audio.

Short quiz provides useful on-screen practice in recognising adverbs (and reading instructions). You can also print a separate copy of the recipe for reading practice, a paper based activity (or to cook it!).

To run the quiz unzip the files (select “Extract all files”) into a new folder and click on l1adverbhotpot. Do not try to run directly from the zip folder or you will not see all the graphics and links.

Created with the excellent freeware program Hot Potatoes http://hotpot.uvic.ca/

Two homophone crosswords – each consists of 30+ words and ‘clues’ (the clues are simply the matching homophone which makes these crosswords quite tricky (L2) and ideal for promoting lots of discussion if done in pairs or small groups).

Please note you must download the free Eclipse software before you can use theese ecw (Eclipse crossword) file below. See our Good Software – Eclipse Crossword entry for more information.

A super series of 6 graded interactive ICT worksheets. Covers E1 Lit and ESOL reading (reading key words / vocabulary) and E1-2 ICT ( with a different focus for each sheet – see below).
Exercise 1 – change the text colour
Exercise 2 – change the text size
Exercise 3 – change the text style
Exercise 4 – change the text format
Exercise 5 – drag & drop the correct words