General Resources

Various activities based around the subject of staying safe online, fake news and online scams. Practise and preparation for the reading exams with questions to practise alphabetical order, features of text, purpose, style, reading comprehension and alphabetical order.

Editor's note

Such a useful  and topical resource! Written for Entry 3 ESOL but also ideal for Functional Skills English and Digital Literacy. The reading text on page looks deceptively simple but some of the exam-style questions are challenging and would also be suitable for Level 1.

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. 

These three simple resources are aimed for teaching the layout features and conventions of informal and formal letter writing.  There are three templates: 

Suits ESOL students at Entry 3+.  It creates plenty of scope for  further work e.g.

An ESOL lesson embedding numeracy, diversity and British values, centred on the Spring Equinox and three festivals which happen around / on this day - Purim, Holi and Shunbun No Hi. Learners collect unfamiliar words on a vocabulary sheet and ask and answer questions to elicit meaning / explanation. There is a powerpoint to introduce the topic, using acronyms eg 7DIAW  - Seven Days In A Week to elicit key words, and lead to an explanation of what the Vernal Equinox is and when it is.

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.

Simulation of completing an online CV. Very easy to use, fill in the boxes and print after completion.

A set of resources created for a group 16-19 year olds with high functioning ASD (autistic spectrum disorder) but suitable for any E2-E3 literacy /Functional English student.

Involves discussion of year’s highlights, and a written reflection and prediction exercise. Finally, the students record their hopes and wishes which are then kept in sealed envelopes until l the end of the academic year (or other agreed date).

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.