Slides from session 2 of our 5 week Teaching Functional Skills course at The Priory School

1. association of colleges in the eastern region
Teaching Functional English 2

2. Objectives
association of colleges in the eastern region
• to review the levels and assessment
structure of Functional English
• to recommend some sources of ‘ready
made’ teaching and learning materials
• to identify some literacy support strategies
& e learning tools appropriate for all levels
• to explore how reading activities can
prepare for writing skills development

4. 3 skill areas
association of colleges in the eastern region
Functional English
Speaking
and listening Reading Writing

5. Functional English – assessment overview
association of colleges in the eastern region
Level 1 Level 2
Entry Level
- externally set, - externally set,
- externally set, externally marked externally marked
internally assessed papers for reading & papers for reading &
tasks for all 3 elements writing writing
- some modification of - internally set and - internally set and
contexts for Speaking internally marked tasks internally marked tasks
and Listening for Speaking and for Speaking and
Listening Listening

6. association of colleges in the eastern region
Skillsworkshop

7. association of colleges in the eastern region

8. association of colleges in the eastern region

10. association of colleges in the eastern region
Awarding Organisations - OCR

11. Active learning teaching strategies
association of colleges in the eastern region
• use of graphic organisers
• classifying activities
• text marking
• matching
• domino activities
• sequencing
• table reconstruction
• ranking
• ‘jigsaw’ activities
• webquests

12. association of colleges in the eastern region
The Basic Skills Agency

13. My Club - Norwich City

14. Word Magnets

15. association of colleges in the eastern region

16. association of colleges in the eastern region

17. association of colleges in the eastern region
Languages: English Subtitles: English
Colour: Running Widescreen Dual Layer Not for
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PAL Layer may This DVD is
127 mins 2.35:1 trigger a slight for retail sale
Letterbox pause for private
home use only
Language: Infrequent mild
Suitable only for
persons of 12 Sex/nudity: None
years and over
Violence: Some moderate
Not to be supplied to any
person below that age Other: Some moderate horror

18. association of colleges in the eastern region

19. association of colleges in the eastern region

20. association of colleges in the eastern region

21. Activate prior knowledge
association of colleges in the eastern region
• before you look at the text question the group
about what they already know about it –
• purpose – what kind of information are we
• looking for?
• lay out – what are the typical features?
• where do we look first?
• how do we expect the information to be presented
– under headings? in a table? next to a diagram?
• what are some of the key words & phrases
we might expect to find?

22. Text level purpose, lay out, audience
association of colleges in the eastern region
Sentence level
Word Level punctuation & grammar
vocabulary, spelling, word structure

23. Using reading tasks to prepare for writing
association of colleges in the eastern region
‘As (learners) read and discuss an increasing
range of text types, their implicit understanding
of style will be extended and made more
explicit. They can then draw on this knowledge
for their own writing.’
(p 121 Adult Literacy Core Curriculum)

24. The link between reading and writing
association of colleges in the eastern region
‘learners need to be encouraged
to read as writers’

25. Allows pupils to tackle
Explores reading
problems harder than those
as a problem
they could do alone
solving activity
association of colleges in the eastern region
Can help pupils
Encourages learn about their
independence ability to cope with
and critical ‘challenge’
thinking
Often asks pupils to
draw conclusions and
Involves pupils in being take decisions
cognitively active – not
just in behaviour

26. Objectives
association of colleges in the eastern region
• to review the levels and assessment
structure of Functional English
• to recommend some sources of ‘ready
made’ teaching and learning materials
• to identify some literacy support strategies
& e learning tools appropriate for all levels
• to explore how reading activities can
prepare for writing skills development