I am absolutely fascinated by this blog written by Lauren Piovesan, the founder of ESL Reads. Despite spending two decades simplifying texts - a task that I enjoy and sometimes find a challenge - I've never really analysed what I'm doing.
Although written for EAL (English as an Additional Language) teachers this is a useful guide for both experienced and new teachers of ESOL, adult literacy (Functional Skills English) and indeed vocational subjects.
Since the demise of the Excellence Gateway (EG) on September 30 2023, there is no official Government backed website where the old Skills for Life core curricula are available. The EG has (partially) migrated to the Education & Training Foundation (ETF) at https://www.et-foundation.co.uk/ but there is no sign of these classic documents.
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Three differentiated writing tasks / practice papers on the same theme. First, you apply to appear in a Christmas Concert at the village hall. Later, you hear you have got a place in the concert and write an email inviting your friends to come and watch.
I wrote these tasks as an informal summative assessment end-of-term activity for a mixed level E1-E3 group of 16-19 year-olds, but they are suitable for any age group.
Entry 1 reading practice test (A) in Edexcel-style. Great for extra practice and revision (would also be good for diagnostic assessment at the start of the year). With answer sheet.
Entry 1 reading practice test (B) in Edexcel-style. Great for extra practice and revision (would also be good for diagnostic assessment at the start of the year). With answer sheet.
Writing practice (in the style of Trinity exams – task 2) is an excellent series of ESOL writing tasks (ideal for Literacy too) with two very useful sample messages to look at first. Includes 4 postcard-writing tasks, 5 notes/messages, and 3 text message tasks.
Covers all ESOL E1 and Lit E1 writing elements.
A reading comprehension exercise written in the style of a practice OCR E1 reading assignment (Task 1). It also includes OCR style tasks 2-4 (purpose of text, reading signs and symbols) – these are NOT about Love Hearts.
Love Hearts task 1 can also be used independently or alongside our popular Valentine’s Day E2-L2 Love Hearts Assignment (see below) in mixed ability classes.
Level
Entry Level 1
English
Rs/E1.1 Read and recognise simple sentence structures
AL Rt/E1.1 Read short familiar texts
Rt/E1.2
AL Rw/E1.2 Decode simple, regular words
AL Rw/E1.1 Have limited, meaningful sight vocabulary of words, signs, symbols
In the style of City and Guilds Entry Level assignments – covers planning, drafting and proof reading a letter from Lapland. With a mark sheet for E1, E2 and E3 to allow for differentiated assessment.
