A short workbook I created to 'test the maths water' before teaching maths to a group of adult and young ESOL learners. It covers almost everything in the Entry Level 1 curriculum with exam style tasks/ questions linked to C&G Functional Skills Maths assessments.
I usually use it with groups as a gentle introduction to the idea of maths and it forms a good diagnostic for the things they need to learn. It also lets me see how motivated they are to study maths!
Editor's notes
Level
Entry Level 1
Maths
General numeracy / maths
FM Simple one step problem(s)
FM E1.1 Read, write, order, compare numbers to 20
FM E1.2 Use whole numbers to count up to 20 items including zero
FM E1.3 Add numbers which total up to 20, & subtract numbers from numbers up to 20
FM E1.4 Recognise & interpret the symbols +, – and = appropriately
FM E1.5 Recognise coins & notes, write them in numbers with the correct symbols (£, p) where these involve numbers up to 20
FM E1.6 Read 12 hour digital & analogue clocks in hours
FM E1.7 Know the number of days in a week, months, & seasons in a year. Name & sequence them.
FM E1.8 Describe & make comparisons between measures of items inc. size, length, width, height, weight, capacity
FM E1.9 Identify & recognise common 2-D & 3-D shapes inc. circle, cube, rectangle (inc. square) & triangle
FM E1.10 Use everyday positional vocabulary to describe position & direction including left, right, in front, behind, under & above
FM E1.11 Read numerical information from lists
ESOL
General ESOL
General
Generic resources for literacy, numeracy and beyond
Comprehensive, step by step 12 page workbook.
Students must research their own budgets and local financial institutions before making major financial decision such as costing an event and taking out a loan to buy a car.
Covers money, decimals, ratio and percentages (interest rates). Fully mapped to E2-L1 Functional Maths.
Two differentiated investigations: one aimed at E3 learners, the other at L1.
Each covers a wide range of skills – including measures, bar charts, sell by dates, shapes and money. The L1 version includes a ‘best-buy’ section and fractions.
Adapted from previous Skillsworkshop resources including Easter Numeracy (Carrie Bray 2010) and Easter Eggs – Value for money? (Judith White, 2012). These can be found under “See also” below. Tutor warning
This resource contains the basic information with examples for learners preparing to sit level 1 Functional Maths. It is by no means comprehensive but does cover the areas that most learners find problematic, such as ratio, fractions, decimals, percentages and perimeter, area and volume.
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.
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.
Level
Entry Level 2
Entry Level 3
Level 1
Level 2
English
General literacy / English
Functional Skills English
Maths
General numeracy / maths
Functional Maths
ESOL
General ESOL
ICT
Functional ICT
General
Generic resources for literacy, numeracy and beyond
This resource has been designed using ideas in the popular Celebrity BMI resource (From Janet Wilkins – see below) already available on Skillsworkshop but adapted to suit the needs of Entry/ Level 1 learners.
An animated PowerPoint presentation (86 slides) that covers several topics: Fractions & Percentages;Units of Measure; Charts & Graphs; Ratio, Scale & Proportion; Perimeter, Area & Volume; Averages and Range. There are also some links for a planned inclusion of other topics at a later date (Time & Money, Tables and Formulae).
This presentation can be used in class, driven by the teacher, but it is also ideal as a guide for self-study.
Not really suitable for handouts, as there are many animated sequences that would overlap on the printed page.
