This text has been specifically designed for pupils to use when learning how to pick out literary techniques used by writers and for them to explain why the writer has used these examples that they have picked out. The text is about a person entering a haunted house. It is best used with our other resources on Writer’s Techniques which are also available on this site.

This is a Functional Skills English writing resource for Entry Level 3 and/or Level 1. It can be used for both levels as the tasks are suitable for either of them. The student's writing is differentiated by outcome, but Level 1 pupils should be told to write between 300 and 350 words for each task. It contains four different writing tasks. In the first task students are asked to write an advert to inform people about a charity Christmas dinner that they are hosting. In the second activity they write an informative text for pupils in a school about a celebration (Christmas). In the third activity students have to write to friends and family to ask them for sponsorship as they try to raise money for charity by doing a Santa Dash race. In the final activity they write a letter to a friend about an interesting Christmas party that they went to. Each writing task comes with a set of instructions for the student to follow. This resource improves pupils Functional Skills writing skills and prepares them for exams. It can be used as a series of stand alone activities to be performed in class, as extension activities or as homework.

This is an Entry Level 2 Functional Skills English reading resource. It consists of 3 non-fiction reading texts with comprehension questions. The first text gives advice on how to decorate a Christmas tree, the second is an advertisement for a Christmas sale in a shop and the third is an informative text about Christmas dinner around the world. These texts can be used as class activities, exam revision or as homework. Please look for our other Functional Skills Christmas resources.

This resource consists of a powerpoint presentation and some worksheets to use with Chapter 10 of Michael Morpurpo’s ‘Private Peaceful’. The main activity is for pupils to plan and write a persuasive text in which they attempt to persuade others that a character in the story is a good or a bad leader. Some additional time could be used to turn these written texts into spoken presentations in which the pupils attempt to persuade the class. The powerpoint helps to organise the lesson, checking pupils’ understanding of the chapter and setting up class/group discussions. The worksheets consist of a writing plan for pupils to complete, lined paper for the writing activity and an extension activity in which pupils use a thesaurus to find as many suitable adjectives as they can to describe famous leaders from history. They may also research these leaders if they have time, although they should be familiar with them. This resource can last for between 2 and 6 hours depending on how much time you allow for each activity. This is the lesson plan: • Pre-Reading Discussion: *Discuss what you already know about World War 1 and what life was like for the soldiers in it. • Listen to/read the 9th chapter of the novel. Check your comprehension of the story by describing what happened using the images on the lesson powerpoint. • Class Discussion: Leaders Discuss what makes a good leader Which characters in the story take on the role of a leader? • Lesson Activity: Plan and write a persuasive text in which you attempt to convince others that a character in the story is or is not a good leader. • Extension Work: Adjectives For Famous Leaders Using a thesaurus, find as many different, but suitable adjectives to describe the famous leaders pictured. Please check out our other ‘Private Peaceful’ resources.

This resource asks students to write a Christmas dinner invitation. There is a task sheet giving instructions and a colourful template on which to write the invitations. These tasks are differentiated two ways, one for a written invitation and one for an invitation in the form of a poster. There is also an extension task based on what people around the world eat for Christmas dinner. This resource works well with our 'Who Would You Treat To A Special Christmas Dinner?" lessons. Please check out our other Functional Skills English Christmas resources too.

This is a presentation describing what happens in bullfighting in detail and leading to a discussion about bullfighting.

This series of resources is to be taught while studying ‘Of Mice and Men’. It is designed predominantly for classes in Special Needs schools in the UK. The resources help the pupils prepare for various qualifications. This includes Entry Level English, Functional Skills English and GCSE English Language. In total, there are 11 lessons in the series. Each lesson is differentiated. This means that the lessons are set at EL1, EL2, EL3 and at wither Level 1 Functional Skills or GCSE. There are reading, writing and speaking and listening lessons. Both the writing and speaking and listening lessons can be taught using various marking schemes. These lessons can also be used in main stream education for pupils working either below GCSE level or at a low GCSE level. This lesson should be taught after George has had the fight with Curley. It prepares pupils for Functional Skills Entry Level 1 reading exams.

This is an Entry Level 3 Functional Skills reading activity. It consists of two texts and two comprehension exercises. The first text is about making the perfect love potion and the second is a text advising police on how to catch apothecaries who make illegal potions. It is designed to be taught with Romeo and Juliet. It can also be introduced as a stand alone activity, a revision exercise or as a piece of homework. We at Engage Education create Functional Skills and Entry Level resources to be taught with GCSE recommended literature. We believe that functional can be fun.

This lesson is best taught after the pupils have read or listened to the second chapter of ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’. The main activities in this lesson are centered on the question of whether farmers should be allowed to kill foxes or not. The main production activities are a class discussion on this question and a writing activity where the pupils write a formal letter to the council giving their own opinion and asking for the council to act. There are structured writing plans for the pupils to complete, one that argues for farmers killing foxes and one that argues against it. These writing plans are differentiated, with different versions to accommodate more and less able pupils. There is also an extension activity for pupils who finish before others in the class, which is called ‘The Angry Farmer Conjunction Challenge!’

This includes a Level 1 Functional Skills English reading resource. Pupils are asked to read a text discussing whether we should celebrate Guy Fawkes Night or not. The writer discusses both sides of the debate and then concludes with their opinion on how we should change the way it is celebrated in modern times. Pupils could research this topic before or after reading the text, looking into the gunpowder plot and the history of how Guy Fawkes Night has been celebrated. After reading, the pupils have to complete a comprehension exercise and they are also asked for their opinion on the topic. The reading leads to a Level 1 Functional Skills speaking and listening exercise where pupils debate whether we should celebrate Guy Fawkes Night, stop celebrating it or continue to celebrate it, but change the way that we do it. The group must come to a conclusion at the end if the discussion, taking everyone’s views into account. The speaking and listening resource included is for staff to use as an assessment tool. There is a checklist of skills used to chart pupil progress both as a group and individually. This is a quick and easy way to assess pupils in their Functional Skills speaking and listening and it provides clear evidence in pupils’ books or folders.

This resource consists of three Entry Level 2 Functional Skills reading texts with questions related to Halloween. The first text gives advice on how to catch a ghost, the second is an advertisement for The Monster’s Club and the third presents information about Halloween-like traditions around the world. The texts can be used as revision tests or as stand-alone activities which can incorporate speaking and listening activities and possible research tasks. Please check out our other Functional Skills English Halloween materials. This includes reading, writing and speaking + listening resources for ranging from Functional Skills Entry Level 1 to Level 1.

This is a Functional Skills Entry Level 3 Reading Activity. It consists of 2 texts. It is best taught while studying Romeo + Juliet, sometime after Romeo and Tybalt’s fight.

This is a Functional Skills Entry Level 2 Reading Activity. It has 3 texts with comprehension questions. ‘Zombie Alert’, ‘School Closed For Rats’ and ‘Dating Advice For Boys’. All the texts are functional, but fun.

This presentation is to be used when delivering a session to the whole school on how to mark written work. It explains the value of good marking and feedback. It presents different forms of marking and feedback and it explains what is required to make marking effective. Advice is given on what to mark on a written text and what not to mark, so that marking is effective and does not demotivate the student. It then introduces ‘live’ marking and explains how staff can do this successfully in lessons. This then leads to a marking activity where staff put these ideas into practice while marking four examples of pupils’ work. After this activity, the texts are displayed on the presentation for a feedback session. The final part of the presentation is about what should happen after marking, with advice given on how to follow up ‘Next Steps’ and ‘Literacy Targets’ by giving the pupils ownership of their own progress. This presentation can be adapted to include your own school’s writing marking code and policy.

This resource is designed to be used with Chapter 7 of the novel Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo. This chapter is titled ‘Twenty-Eight Minutes Past One’. The is the final chapter set in the home village as they Peaceful boys leave for war at the end of the chapter. It is also the final chapter in which Molly, Mother Peaceful and The Colonel play a central role so they are a focus of this lesson. This resource contains a powerpoint presentation that is used to complete a pre-reading discussion, to check the pupils’ comprehension of this chapter and to generate a discussion whether the pupils think Molly, Mother Peaceful and The Colonel are ‘good’ characters or not. As a teacher, you can decide if you want ‘good’ to mean good in terms of their morals or if you want it to mean effective as a character. This resource also includes some worksheets. These contain a lesson(s) plan, 3 activities and some extension work. The first activity asks pupils to work in a group/pair and to discuss who are their favourite 3 characters and why. They can record their ideas on the worksheet for this activity . The second activity asks the pupils to write whether they think Molly, Mother Peaceful and The Colonel are ‘good’ characters and give reasons for their answers. This activity follows on from the class discussion on the powerpoint presentation. This third activity is an extended writing task which asks the pupils to write a character description of Molly, Mother Peaceful or The Colonel. They are given some tips on what they could include before they write. In the extension activity, pupils are given 10 actions that characters in the novel have done so far. They are asked to use a thesaurus to find suitable adverbs to describe how the characters do these actions. This resource should take at least two lessons to complete, but it could be used for more depending on how much time you allow for the discussions. The extension work could also be used as a whole class activity or as homework. Please look at our other Private Peaceful lessons in this series.

This resource explains what nouns are and gives pupils examples of nouns. They are then asked to write down different nouns that they can see in given images and in their present location. This activity can be used as a class activity, as extension work or as homework.

This series of resources is to be taught while studying ‘Of Mice and Men’. It is designed predominantly for classes in Special Needs schools in the UK. The resources help the pupils prepare for various qualifications. This includes Entry Level English, Functional Skills English and GCSE English Language. In total, there are 11 lessons in the series. Each lesson is differentiated. This means that the lessons are set at EL1, EL2, EL3 and at wither Level 1 Functional Skills or GCSE. There are reading, writing and speaking and listening lessons. Both the writing and speaking and listening lessons can be taught using various marking schemes. These lessons can also be used in main stream education for pupils working either below GCSE level or at a low GCSE level. This lesson should be taught after George and Lennie meet Curley. It prepares the pupils for Entry Level 3 Functional Skills English exams.

This series of resources is to be taught while studying ‘Of Mice and Men’. It is designed predominantly for classes in Special Needs schools in the UK. The resources help the pupils prepare for various qualifications. This includes Entry Level English, Functional Skills English and GCSE English Language. In total, there are 11 lessons in the series. Each lesson is differentiated. This means that the lessons are set at EL1, EL2, EL3 and at wither Level 1 Functional Skills or GCSE. There are reading, writing and speaking and listening lessons. Both the writing and speaking and listening lessons can be taught using various marking schemes. These lessons can also be used in main stream education for pupils working either below GCSE level or at a low GCSE level. This lesson should be taught just before George and Lennie arrive at The Ranch. It prepares the pupils for either Entry Level 3 or Level 1 Functional Skills English writing exams.