Adult Numeracy, Functional Maths, and GCSE Resources

Based on three recent articles about sugar in food and drinks – with a special focus on high sugar drinks sold by popular High Street coffee shops.

The articles are followed by six pages of challenging differentiated questions for E3-L2 Functional Maths – all are based on the articles. Topics include large numbers; fraction, decimal & percentage equivalents, averages & range, extracting information from tables, and the four operations.

Also includes embedded Functional English.

Topical resource based on a news story. Reading comprehension at 2 levels (E3 and L1/L2) plus two writing extension activities with writing frames. Some embedded maths (including a chart in the L1/L2 exercise) and the opportunity to discuss healthy eating. The higher level comprehension aims to get learners to understand in depth what they are reading, rather than just answer the questions from the text.

Very topical and challenging set of tasks based on a news report about the new 5p charge for plastic carrier bags introduced in England on October 5 2015.

Questions range from Entry 3 to high Level 2 and cover dates, large numbers, bar charts, averages, interpreting data in tables, mean average and percentages. It also challenges learners’ reading and English comprehension skills. Bar chart question requires graph paper or Excel.

A challenging set of questions based on a short text about the stunning Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red installation at the Tower of London.
Questions cover number measures, time, money, area – many calculations involve working with very large numbers.

20 literacy and numeracy questions to warm up the new term! All based on the words HAPPY NEW YEAR (can easily be adapted for other festivals such a Diwali, New Year’s Eve or Ramadan). Covers vowels, consonants, number, ratios, simple substitution, range, mode and more!
Ideal for mixed ability groups (E1-L2). Also provides very good practice in reading instructions carefully.
For higher level groups it could be completed in teams as a speed test.

This maths investigation brings awareness about reusable energy and therefore, sustainability. Students are asked to analyse data and make decisions through connecting a few different topics of mathematics such as large numbers, rational numbers (including ratio and scale), handling data and elements of geometry. Moreover, the project can be continued by English language tutors.

This is a practical handling data task at L1 and L2 which uses the Internet to find the necesssary data in order to complete a Expenses claim form.

I work with Landbased students most of whom visit an exhibition at the Bath & West show ground. In this task they have to work out how much it will cost them to travel to the site and how much the entry fee is, then enter this information onto a expenses claim form as if they were submitting it to an employed to reclaim their costs.

For L2 students they need to find the actual cost of the fuel they use for the journey.

This is great as a warm-up activity or a bit of end-of-term fun. It is suitable for a mixed ability group of numeracy learners, or indeed literacy or ESOL learners. This quiz tests learners’ knowledge of how old someone has to be in order to do certain things legally, e.g. be a blood donor. It can be used in small group or pair work (which worked well for me) as well as individually.

A 12-question test, designed for an Adult Numeracy class consisting largely of ESOL speakers.
Covers the terms “import” and “export”, since these often crop up in exams. Also mean, mode, median and range, and the meanings of “discount”, “under”, “approximately”, “difference” and “enlarged”. A little fraction revision, too: students have to identify 1/3 as “one-third”.

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.