Adult Literacy, Functional English, and GCSE Resources

A great set of mixed Entry exercises where learners are encouraged to use a range of positive (and negative!) adjectives to describe their favourite players.
Plus: write to Capello (writing frame included), reading and discussion, rearrange sentences, use conjunctions, and research previous World Cups.

A series of comprehension / research / dictionary tasks based on 3 separate short texts about Remembrance Day, the Menin Gate, and the Holocaust. The final task gives a choice of creative writing ideas.
Written for employment students in order to develop research, communciation and teamwork skills (but suitable for all L2 learners).

Originally used pre-2010-election in a mixed ability (E1-L2) group but also makes an excellent Functional English resource at any time.
Detailed 2.5 hour lesson plan includes discussion, mini-presentations, web research and paired writing. Includes internet research guidance sheets, scaffolded gap-fill sheet to help with the web research task and a sample MP information sheet. Ideal for (and fully mapped to) E3-L2 Functional English.

A series of tasks designed as both an embedded literacy / Functional English assignment and also as a model to assist Art and Design students who had to make a portfolio describing various types of fabric.
It would be of interest to other learners who enjoy fashion subjects, leading to an extended project on silk in the fashion industry. Includes reading, watching a video, discussion, research and writing.

An unusual exercise where the learner must first read an information text and then check a piece of work – not only for spelling and punctuation errors but also for factual accuracy. Then sort teams into alphabetical order. Aimed at E2-E3 although some parts are suitable for L1.

Looking at Newspapers is a wonderful example of creative differentiated teaching across all levels (E1-L2). A detailed lesson description, resources and introductory PPT are included. The lesson uses Kipling’s “What and Why and When, And How and Where and Who” to help students analyse newspaper reports and interview other students, or their teacher, to create their own reports.

Supercars (including the President’s Cadillac, and an Aston Martin with an ejector seat) consists of two detailed, differentiated E1-E2 2.5 hr lesson plans complete with resources.
Includes reading and writing sentences (matching cars to scenarios), alphabet, spelling/phonics, discussion and much more.

09-10 Football Season is a wonderful way to engage mixed ability groups of footie fans!
Covers formulating an argument, discussion, recognising points of view – facts & opinions, writing sentences & paragraphs.
Maths aspects include extracting information from tables, averages, ratios, and addition & subtraction.

Investigate the possibility of a college stocking fairly traded products in its canteen. Covers many reading, writing, ICT, numeracy, speaking and listening skills inc. data handling, report writing, creating charts and questionnaires, giving a presentation, etc. Ideal for embedding all three functional skills (or literacy, numeracy and ICT) especially for business students.

Three short, realistic ESOL / Literacy texts accompanied by reading comprehension, sentence structure, punctuation and spelling exercises.