Adult Literacy, Functional English, and GCSE Resources

[img_assist|nid=5121|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=68|height=100]This resource explores the differences between synonyms, antonyms and acronyms.
It includes an introductory PPT, a sorting activity with synonym cards, a Smart Notebook activity for interactive whiteboards, an antonym work sheet, and a synonym writing exercise.

I have found this a great resource for encouraging learners to explore a greater range of vocabulary, use dictionary and thesuarus skills, improve spelling and encourage descriptive and creative writing.

This is an activity on New Year. It was written for an E3 ESOL class but could be adapted for E2 fairly easily too. There is a reading comprehension, a group activity, writing practice and also an optional cut-up “top Ten” resolutions activity.

I haven’t done a lesson plan to go with the resources as I think they could be easily adapted and used in different ways.

The resources have been designed to complement the alphabetical ordering component of the E2 and E3 adult literacy exams. There are are four printable worksheets suitable for levels E2-E3. Two worksheets have also been adapted as PPT slides which include audio files so that the jobs and instructions can be heard as well as read.

A warm up or round up exercise to get Functional Skills students interested in spelling! A lot of my students are interested in tattoos (this is one of the few jobs where the fact that I am covered in them is actually a good thing!) and this had led to a lot of discussion.

I often talk through the importance of considering their designs before getting them done and this ties in nicely. It could be used as part of a session on tattoos, for example discussions and writing a letter to a friend to tell them about the pros and cons of getting a tattoo.

A complete lesson to help students in using these reference books. Look at and compare the features of different dictionaries, look up words in a dictionary, order words alphabetically and rewrite a text (in aprs) using a thesaurus to replace every instance of “good” with a more appropriate woprd

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

L1/L2 resource adapted from comma quizzes in The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation by Jane Straus. Nine slides of multiple choice questions. They are all in red, green, yellow or blue so that learners can throw beanbags into the corresponding hoops, or hold up corresponding cards etc. The choices are sometimes very tricky and this provokes a lot of discussion.

A succinct, beautifully clear and very useful one page handout and accompanying PPT. All the old favourites plus some that you might not be aware of. Includes suffixes, plurals, ible/able, etc.
The PPT could easily be contextualised to include words for specific vocational areas.

A series of clear tasks that works well for a wide ability range (E2-L1).
Includes: resizing pictures, creating and saving folders and files, web research and poster design.

An interactive PowerPoint that could be used by the whole class or individually to identify the four main purposes of text. I used it with a new L2 group as a whole class activity.

First, we discussed why people write and wrote their ideas down. Tthen we moved on to looking at the PowerPoint. Each example text was discussed and its purpose(s) was identified. We then looked at the relevant BBC Skillswise factsheets (links are provided within the PPT) to see if the example text shared the same features.