Adult Literacy, Functional English, and GCSE Resources

A couple of resources for planning a CV.

Firstly, I would check learners understand the term ‘Employability’ and, using the letters in the the word, ask learners to come up with ideas for the personal skills and qualities needed to get a job. For example – E – enthusiastic, energetic, M – motivated, multi-talented …etc. I would then move on to the PPT.

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.

8 pictures and words to teach the vocabulary of things in a living room. Can be cut up and used as a picture / word match activity for groups or as a whole class activity. Can also be used to practise alphabetical ordering. There is also
a worksheet, a labelling exercise and short simple writing activity to practise the structure ‘there is / there are’.

An E3- L2 Set of ‘follow-me’ cards that can be used by a group of learners or as a domino card match ‘loop’ for an individual learner. Serves as a supplementary / plenary resource to identifying and defining common phrases/sayings.

A L1/2 Functional English Card match activity. Serves as a tactile supplement/plenary to identifying the contrasts in the tone of language used in factual, opinionated and biased statements.

A L1/L2 Functional English card match resource. Serves as a tactile supplement/plenary for the recognition of text and layout features assessed at Level 1/2. Colour coded to aid learners in organising the columns, this resource allows learners to place the layout feature next to its descriptor and layout effect.

Cards which can be used as a plenary or warm up to match definitions and features to types of text.
Editor’s note
With Functional English mapping

Photos and pictures to match with accounts of real emergency situations. All in the present tense. All the accounts are true. Accounts can be cut in to strips and given to pairs of learners who can put them in to a sequence to tell a story. Leads to discussion on how we tell a story, and how we sequence sentences to make sense.
Lots of new, real life vocabulary to provoke discussion.
Some stories shorter and simpler than others to allow for differentiation in group.

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 powerpoint to spark discussion and introduce the topic of formal and informal language and choosing which is appropriate for different social and work situations. Aimed at E3-L1 Functional English learners.

The PPT can be used with the word match up game, which gets learners thinking about the difference between formal and informal language. Laminate the page and cut up into individual word cards.