General Resources

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.

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.

The need for deliberate teaching of phonemic awareness, and a means of doing this.
A research paper followed by a useful step by step method.

This is a fun, short warm up activity to energise learners at the start of the lesson. It asks students to make a decision on a question and either stand up or sit down depending on their views.

I use it with my Foundation learners, as I teach them maths at 9am in the morning and sometimes they need a short activity to engage them!

Two different versions are included. Some of the questions are not for the faint-hearted but all can be easily edited to suit your own learners.

An E1 kinaesthetic resource for 2-4 players – also ideal for dyslexic learners at higher levels.

Questioning for understanding is a really useful help sheet that encourages learners to ask relevant questions (any topic, any level). Based on Kipling’s “What and Why and When, And How and Where and Who” with teaching ideas and useful links.

For a related resource using the same idea to investigate and write newspaper reports please see Ellie Walsh’s Looking at Newspapers (below).

Handy reference for Entry Level ESOL and Literacy learners. Helps with Alphabetical order, upper / lower case and vowels / consonants.

A 26 page booklet that thoroughly covers reading and writing numbers as words. The repetition and variety of practice methods (handwriting; matching; look, say, cover, write, check; word searches, etc.) provide ideal practice for preEntry and higher level dyslexic learners in both literacy and numeracy classes.

Note: Sept 2011 – picture added and curriculum mapping improved.