General Resources

I put this together when I found so many of my learners trying to hone their employability skills did not know what a lot of the words on job descriptions meant. 

Resource 1 (Definition matching cards: job skills and attributes): I laminated these and cut them up and they worked in pairs or threes to match them up.

There are two other linked resources, as below, to help students with getting to grips with the keywords used in Job Descriptions and Person Specifications. 

This is a basic editable word wheel which you can print, cut out and attach together with a brass paper fastener.
Learners can concentrate on one word at a time. Word wheels can be used for building vocabulary, spelling practice and much more. Suitable for all levels of Functional Skills and ESOL.
Instructions and ideas are included within the PPT. For example:
Stretchy:

• Write positive or negative words in the table
• Look up words that are unfamiliar

Stretchier:

Students design a board game to demonstrate their learning. This can incorporate IT skills (Word template provided below) or can be done with paper, card and pens.

I originally did this with an E2E group and it proved popular. It’s an alternative to the “design a poster” task to review learning. The instructions are set out as a board game. it can be used for literacy, numeracy, ICT or ESOL.

An outstanding set of resources. Developed to prompt discussion on knife crime with parents and children in a family learning setting, they are equally suitable in an FE setting – prompting discussion between students and tutors. The materials can be used to focus on knife crime but are also useful as part of wider discussion about criminal behaviour.

The resources include

Fun, multi-purpose speaking / reading / listening / writing / maths warm-up activity that can be used at any level and for any subject – particularly effective at Entry Level. Learners shake two dice to locate a word on a number matrix (good for maths:co-ordinates too!).
Five sample grids are provided – covering descriptions, homophones (2 grids), spellings and clothes – plus a blank grid so you can make your own. Includes full instructions and can also be used for numeracy.

A simulation of the AV and FPTP voting system first used in an Entry Level Functional Maths and English class on Referendum day May 5th 2011.

Students vote for their favourite chocolate and compare the results when using the two different systems.

Resource includes AV and FPTP ballot papers, ballot box labels and a polling station poster. Plus links to voting information videos and easy-read referendum information leaflets.

A multi-functional resource for Literacy or Numeracy. Sample TV listings by day, programme, start and end times, channel and genre. Use for alphabetic or numeric sorting, skimming and scanning exercises, literacy social sight vocabulary for days of the week, numeracy exercises for calculating time, etc. This resource contains some sample exercise questions to use which can be developed further according to need. I laminated the sheets and then cut up into days so lower level learners can move the elements around. Higher level learners can work from the whole page sheets as well.

A fabulous set of illustrated instructions. Makes a great activity for literacy and numeracy classes (reading instructions, measuring, shapes, etc.) at many levels.
For an easy to use template please see Bryan Fitzpatrick’s accompany resource below.

A great way show any Skills for Life learner how to play this popular puzzle and makes a good warm up activity. Use to provoke general discussion on logic-steps and how puzzles help to sharpen the mind and increase brain activity!

Generic Bingo card maker is a very clever Excel spreadsheet that automatically creates 8 different cards (6 items per card) from a master set of 12 items. Use for ESOL (tenses, vocabulary), Literacy (synonyms, antonyms), Maths (tables, square nos.) – anything!
Please also download the related PDF file for an overview, instructions and teaching ideas.