I have shared with you all of my best lessons I have developed over the last 11 years. I'm a Teacher of English with excellent achievement rates making me among the top 2% of the GCSE English team and a consistent strong grade 2 in observations. I have taught a wide range of English qualifications within FE including Functional Skills (English and Maths) and GCSE. I hope you find these resources as useful to your students as I have.
I have shared with you all of my best lessons I have developed over the last 11 years. I'm a Teacher of English with excellent achievement rates making me among the top 2% of the GCSE English team and a consistent strong grade 2 in observations. I have taught a wide range of English qualifications within FE including Functional Skills (English and Maths) and GCSE. I hope you find these resources as useful to your students as I have.
This is a team / group based session designed to not only help students prepare for their L2 FS English writing exam but to also underpin some valuable life skills. There are 7 pages of activities which focus on tone and language when writing to complain, and underpins self awareness and self control. The resources are differentiated so both lower levels and higher achieving students can work together to achieve in this session. The session slowly builds to a final individual task which is to write a formal and tone appropriate letter of complaint, a task similar to one they may find in the exam and can be used as exam preparation or as an introduction to the topic. There are planning scaffolds and word banks to support students in their final writing task. This pack can be edited, broken up into sections and altered to suit you and your student needs. Please keep in mind that the TES preview does at times distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps
I always find that the topic of Donald Trump is a big hit in my classroom but the idea of having to compare two takes on 1 topic isn’t. Many students find this task a daunting one and so I created this lesson to introduce the notion of writing a comparison to my students. The lesson looks at two speeches made by both Obama and Trump, the resource is 10 pages of individual, group activities including watch and retrieve information, targeted and differentiated questioning, group discussion and a final written task. It has been designed for you to deliver in which ever way suits you best. I teach GCSE sessions in 3 hour blocks and so there is enough material in this resource to fill one 3 hour session.
This is a resource which can be used with GCSE but also L2 functional skills. It focuses on students being able to explain , provide insight and discuss inference rather than language features but also allows lower ability students to talk about the facts and their opinions. Please keep in mind that the TES preview distorts the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps
This resource aims to broaden students knowledge of our history, promote equality and diversity whilst also improving their read / obtain skills and engagement with texts. This resource focuses on the contributions of Sikhs during the two World Wars, as many students are unaware of their participation as it is rarely mentioned in movies and memes and unfortunately, this seems to be where many students get their information.
This resource has enough material for an hour and half session but has enough substance to be developed further into any direction you see fit. The focus of the session is primarily E3/L1 read and obtain with some higher level vocabulary slotted in to stretch and challenge. The session also involves a class discussion, a video with task attached , paired and individual activity and is measured via a points system, as in my experience lower level students enjoy being awarded points as they progress in a session. I usually use these types of sessions to try and motivate disengaged students to engage with written text, as many “switch off” when there is text to read or they are required to write something themselves, and so this has been designed for that purpose, however there is room for development to suit your own students needs.
Please be aware that the TES preview can at times distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps.
Sourcing material for your classes can take up a large proportion of what precious little time teachers have. For this reason I have complied a resource pack of various news articles to use with Functional English or GCSE English Language students. This pack has 10 articles covering 22 pages from a wide range of news outlets such as The BBC, The Metro, The Sun, The Telegraph and many more. The articles cover a wide range of topics from Climate Change, gender identity to homophobia and looks at people such as Greta Thunberg and JK Rowling.
The articles vary in length and layout to help reach students of all levels, some are individual articles regarding an individual news story, whilst other news stories have more than 1 article to show how writers create view points or potential bias when covering the news. You are free to use the resources in whichever way fits you and your students. You can create your own worksheets or use the links to project the articles onto an IWB or to show the videos attached. You can use the articles to discuss language, layout, bias, writers view points or to use as a catalyst for class debate.
Please be aware that the TES preview can at time distort the look of a resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps.
This is a short and sweet introduction to the P.E.E answer format for GCSE English students. This is a great way to introduce the idea of stories being constructed and designed to make the audience behave / react a certain way. This session looks at a violent scene from The Hunger Games (rated 12A) breaks down a scene and talks about why a director may have constructed a scene in a way to make the audience react a certain way. The final task is for students to use these elements discussed to prompt P.E.E paragraphs. This resource is easy to adapt and can be used in conjunction with other sessions were P.E.E is used. Please keep in mind that the TES preview can distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps.
This resource can be used with L2 functional skills classes or with GCSE English classes with enough material to cover up to 2 hours. This resources covers language features and apostrophes in one lesson, underpinning proofreading and writing to describe. This is a quick paced session which involves both group and individual tasks, it has routes for stretch and challenge whilst also giving tasks enough scaffolding to support the weaker students in the class. This session is designed to be developed or split into two separate sessions depending on your classes needs. Please be advised that the TES preview does not always give a true reflection of the resource.
Great support/guidance booklet for those students who struggle with the PEE / PEA /PQI and structure. Many students particularly struggle with the explain / inference section of this structure. This fun booklet comes with word banks and starter sentences for those who find this structure a challenge. It also comes with examples of high level answers and developed PEE /PEA/PQI answers to stretch and challenge more able students. Great handout to give to students or have casually on their desks to allow them to freely access whenever they need to, promoting independence in their own learning. Feel free to use in which ever works best for you and your learners.
I like to encourage reading in my classes, and one of the ways I like to do that is with a visual display of books which became blockbuster movies to help grab students attention. This resource is my collection of visuals that I use in different ways to create these displays. It includes 14 different movies which includes a range of diversity and genres, contains images of the book and movie cover with still from the movie itself. You can print these, play with the sizes, layouts and be creative as you feel to suit your learning environment, I like to laminate to provide a glossy look and drape a red cloth over the boards in my classroom to create a old school cinema / theater curtain to create some drama.
Images include:
Eat Prey Love
War Horse
Divergent
The Hobbit
Memoirs of a Geisha
Atonement
The Colour Purple
The Help
Brighton Rock
Feel free to play with and tinker with this resource, these are just image templates to help you get going and create amazing in class displays of your own. Be advised that the TES preview does not always truly reflect the resource. Hope it helps
This single resource is based on the Pearson (Edexcel) L2 Reading paper for English Functional skills. Designed to be used as a mini mock to help get students exam ready or prepped. This uses 1 article as a reference and is closely structured and worded to be as much like the exam as possible, with the exception of the comparison question. Can be altered to suit your students or needs. Hope it helps
The text for this resource is based around healthy eating, looking at the pros and cons of eating chicken. This paper is based on the questions you would find in the edexcel reading paper and designed as a starter/taster, rather than a mock, to help support less able students achieve.
This resource can be altered to suit your cohort, please keep in mind that the TES preview sometimes distorts the look of the resource and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps
This resource is a mini practice of the L2 English reading Functional skills exam. Based around health and fitness and the role of influencers to promote lifestyle products. This resource is based on 1 text and features a selection of exam style questions and is a good way to help get students, especially anxious, students exam ready. Hope it helps
This resource is based around the theme of climate change and is designed to support reluctant, low level or anxious learners get exam ready. This resource has 1 text and features a set of questions which are similar to the ones found on the exam. Hope it helps
This is a practice reading resource based on Greta Thunberg. The resource comes with 1 text and questions which are a selection of questions taken from the Pearson Functional skills exam paper. This resource is perfect for exam practice or to use with lower ability learners or those with anxiety around learning and exams. Hope it helps
This mini bundle consists of a mini reading activity and writing activity, along with video and video worksheet for L1 English Functional Skills. All resources are based around Greta Thunberg and are designed to be as similar as possible to the layout of the pearson functional skills exam - although they can be altered to accommodate any exam board.
The reading paper is based on 1 article about Greta and takes questions as they are presented and worded on the exam. The writing is also presented and worded as it would appear on the exam, so this mini bundle is perfect for any exam prep or to use with lower ability learners. This package also comes with a BBC video and worksheet to accompany it.
Please keep in mind that the TES preview can sometimes alter the look of the resources and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps
This is a mini reading mock for L2 english Functional Skills, based closely on the pearson (edexcel) paper. Based on how the rich and famous have coped over the pandemic, this resource uses 1 article as a reference. The layout and wording are very close to the exam paper itself, with the exception of the comparison question, and so can be used to help get your students exam ready. Hope it helps
This single text resource is designed to help support less ability students prepare for their functional reading exam. Based on the current protests with climate change, this resource basis it’s questions around the edexcel paper.
This resource can be altered to suit the needs of your cohort, please keep in mind that the TES preview can distort the look of the resource and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps
This writing paper is designed to help support lower ability learners or those with exam anxiety. This paper is based around Greta Thunberg and features 1 document with a selection of questions taken from the Pearson L1 writing paper. Hope it helps
This resource is designed for L2 Functional Skills English classes and covers inference and comparison on a introduction level. The lesson is fast paced and is designed so tasks can be delivered as team activities or individually. The lesson is scaffolded from L1, with inference via images to L2 with compare two different view points via styles of writing. I teach apprentices within a short space of time, so please alter the session to suit your own classes. The test preview at times distorts the look of the resource, so please keep in mind this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps
This resource is an introduction to comparing two tasks and the P.E.E answer format to Q13 on the L2 reading paper. The theme of the lesson is “Flat Earth” and contains a Powerpoint, video and related worksheets. This is a quick paced session design for classes which are 2 hours, but can be altered to suit your timetable. Hope it helps
If you have reluctant hair students who need, but don’t want, L2 functional English then this resource may be helpful. I teach very short sessions (1 hour) to disruptive and disengaged student so naturally if you need to adjust the materials to suit your needs / class lengths then you can.
This lesson is centered around a clip from America’s Next Top Model - the hairstyle episode where the models get make-overs. I used this to introduce the idea of comparison and a P.E.E answer structure which is needed for Q13 of the Edexcel reading paper. The students compare the reactions of two models and form a P.E.E answer. Again, my classes are only an hour so feel free to further develop. Hope it helps