Adult Literacy, Functional English, and GCSE Resources

A set of tasks to practise reading and writing skills. Read about a student and his work and college life.

• Practise using conjunctions.
• Learn synonyms
• Practise using punctuation correctly.
• Write about your own experience of studying and working

Editor's notes

So practical and down to earth! Find out about Joseph's day to day college life and his busy job with Deliveroo. Also very useful for E2-E3 Functional Skills English students.

Video task and reading comprehension based on the style of Entry ESOL reading exams. Taken from BBC Newsround website.

Editor’s note
Questions suitable for mixed ability classes from E2-L1 and make good discussion prompts for further work.

A simplified and adapted version of Carrie Bray’s 2011 New Year’s Eve Functional English practice test (which is aimed at E3). This version is aimed at E2 and includes: reading comprehension questions based on New Year superstitions, a cloze exercise, form filling, writing task, and speakign & listening actvities. Great as an introductory topic to spring term sessions.

To find the original higher level resource scroll down to See also and select New Year’s Eve E3 English tasks.

This resource arose from a conversation with a learner who had lost their debit card a number of times in the cash machine because they couldn’t read the screen fast enough.

I used it by discussing each of the screens with learners and then having them work through the reading text and the accompanying exercises. Even better, if you have access to the internet, you can show different images of ATM screens and discuss them.

Simplified texts and DARTS activities with follow up writing tasks at E1 and E2.
Based on material from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust website http://hmd.org.uk/
Prior to completing the reading and writing tasks the class listened to a podcast of a survivor talking about their experiences.The material from both the listening activity (http://hmd.org.uk/resources/podcasts/i-was-there)

A set of reading and writing activities to accompany Readwell Road book 2A Will the Shop Shut?. You will also need need to download book 2A (scroll down to See also)

Readwell Road adult reading scheme books have been a great hit since they first appeared on skillsworkshop in 2010. Site contributor Linda has now gone on and independently published the complete set of 48 books. Linda has recently produced sets of photocopiable activity books to accompany all the stories in Steps 1 and 2.

A short reading text followed by exercises: True or False; Putting words in the correct order to answer questions; Writing sentences with words from the story (or sentences may be copied from the story) and a WordSearch.
This is followed by some dialogue using the situations in the story for practising pronunciation.
Suitable for literacy and ESOL.

Text about the 99p shop chain with comprehension questions, cloze exercise, writing numbers as words and more.

The text and picture are adapted from the wonderful First News site and the 99p Store site.

Set of Remembrance Day tasks covering reading, writing and discussion.
Ideal for, and fully mapped to, Entry Level 1 and 2 Functional English. With teaching tips and extension ideas.

Topical set of resources covering reading, writing and discussion.Two simplified texts – one writer likes fireworks; the other does not! What do you think?
Ideal for, and fully mapped to, Entry Level 1 and 2 Functional English. With teaching tips and extension ideas.