General Resources

A set of Entry 1 and Entry 2 English tasks that focus on two short texts about the alphabetical list of winter storm names released by the Met Office. The first Functional English resource I have written based on the revised Functional Skills English content (2018) which will be used by awarding organisations from September 2019 [1]. 

An analysis of an Entry Level 3 (E3) Functional Skills reading text about Walter Tull, contributed by  Laura Bell (2018) - see right for the link to Laura's resource.

A-Z chart of pictures with the corresponding initial sound. I’ve tried to select pictures which Beginner ESOL adults will recognise.

A simplified version of a newspaper article. The reading is followed by comprehension questions, a meaning match, a word find, and a scanning for correct spelling exercise. Developed for an adult student with Asperger’s, as well as dyslexia, who needs lots of motivation and exercises easy enough for him to be able to be successful without too much help.

Adapted from a Level 1 resource What happens to Ice Falling from planes
from Dave Norgate (2010).

First 100 high frequency keywords typed out on excel in alphabetical order.

Editor’s note
A multitude of uses! Spelling or reading assessments / revision, making flash cards, etc.

The Core Curriculum and Functions Skills Progression Overview side-by-side.
Editor’s note
The print quality of this resource may be low as it is a cut, pasted and scanned (very useful) document. It is not available, even to contributors, as a Word document.
Richard has also posted a link to an interactive version of this document.

This is a game to form new words using syllables.All these words have three parts to them and multiple words can be made using different parts in different order

I have used this with L1 and L2 learners and they love it. I let them work in groups – no more than 5 otherwise it gets a bit too busy and confusing.

You may need to have pre-taught some common prefixes and suffixes and rules; how prefixes never change the spelling of the root word they join, etc..

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.