Literacy, numeracy & ESOL blogs

I am absolutely fascinated by this blog written by Lauren Piovesan, the founder of ESL Reads. Despite spending two decades simplifying texts - a task that I enjoy and sometimes find a challenge - I've never really analysed what I'm doing.

Although written for EAL (English as an Additional Language) teachers this is a useful guide for both experienced and new teachers of ESOL, adult literacy (Functional Skills English) and indeed vocational subjects. 

The Science of Reading blog is well worth a look - especially the Tuesday Teaching Tips.

For example, the entry for Tuesday April 25th included a useful morpheme chart & a lovely idea of pulling out & deeply analysing specific vocabulary over a period of several days (in this case the word 'siphon'!). 

This is lovely and could be very useful as a prompt for Entry Level Functional English reading, writing and discussion activities. 👍👑 . The link below points to the two main easy-read articles written after the death of Queen Elizabeth II. In addition, there are many other topical easy read news articles here: https://www.unitedresponse.org.uk/easy-read/ 

This blog offers plenty of valuable information such as:
A complete and up-to-date guide about the Maths GCSE exams that students can use to inform themselves and get ahead in preparing for the said exam.

A Functional Skills English project, hosted on Padlet. Students are challenged to host an industry award evening. They must source, decide upon and hire the venue; invite the guests as well as write a speech and report on the events of an incident-packed evening.

Formats of writing covered are: formal letter; report; speech; article & invitation.

Aimed at high Level 1 and Level 2 Functional English learners – Padlet allows for the resources to be accessed online or downloaded and offered as paper-based tasks.

A project-based reources hosted on Padlet. Aimed at constructions learners, it challenges them to host an awards night.  They must source, choose and hire a suitable venue as well as write a speech and report on the evening’s most notable events.

Writing skills covered: formal letter writing; report writing; speech and article writing & invitation writing.

Padlet allows access to the resources either directly on the site or downloaded for printing as paper-based task sheets.

A short project designed to encourage group work, negotiation and some creative thinking. Learners must invent and company and a product to market.
The three tasks explore persuasive language techniques through: advertising, accessing ‘crowd funding’ & speech writing.

Aimed at high Level 1 & Level 2 Functional English earners, but could be an ideal opportunity for peer-tutoring in mixed-ability groups.
Padlet allows access to the resources either directly on the site or downloaded for printing as paper-based task sheets.

This blog has been created by Alison Gorf, Senior Lecturer in the Post Compulsory Education and Training Department at the University of Huddersfield.

Alison created this blog to share teaching ideas and resources with her student groups and the world at large!

My name is Gemma. I teach Employability Skills, Adult Literacy and Numeracy and Functional Skills to learners aged 16+. The learners that I teach include people with academic and social barriers to education and employment,learning difficulties and limited or broken English.

I have created this blog as a way of sharing lesson ideas and resources with my direct colleagues and the teaching world at large

Chris is a retired lecturer from The Manchester College. His blog is no longer updated (last post was in 2009) but is still a useful and fascinating source of useful information with a personal slant.