Types of text

On this day
(Literacy Rt/L1, Ws/L1.2)
On the BBC News 'On this day' site you can look up any day of the year and read reports of the major events that have happened on that day in history. You can also read other people's memories of the events and contribute your own. All of this is useful material for tense work, looking at different types of texts and distinguishing fact from opinion.

Workplace words
Thanks to Liz & Hugh de Longh for this idea
(Literacy curriculum - Ww/L1.1)
If you're teaching basic skills in the workplace, try using laminated cards based on industrial materials, for example construction catalogues or training manuals. These can help bring words to life for the learner and illustrate the relevance of what is being taught to their daily life.

EastEnders
(Literacy curriculum - Rs/L1.1)
Get your students to write a personal ad for their favourite EastEnders character. Do they think Pauline needs help with her love life? Visit the character page to print out summaries of each character.

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Techniques for better reading

Films and books
Thanks to Pat Duxbury
(Literacy curriculum - Rt/L1.1, Rw/L1.2, Rs/L1.1)
To bring reading to life for your learners, base a comprehension exercise on a passage from a novelisation of a famous film they might have enjoyed, or even the book the film was based on where appropriate. To help your learners understand what difficult words mean, ask them to think about the surrounding context and what the sentence is trying to say.

Skimming or scanning
(Literacy curriculum - Rt/L1.5)
Thanks to Rod M who sent in this idea.
First get a copy of a television page out of a paper. Next get a student to SCAN the page to find a programme they like and record the time. Then the student should SCAN the film review and select a film. Finally get the student to SKIM the details of film to get an overview of what it is about. You could also SCAN a list of books to find an interesting title, then SKIM through the forward to get an idea of what the book contains.

Bring texts alive with scripts
(Literacy curriculum - Rt/L1.1,Rt/L1.1,Rs/L1.1,Rw/L1.1,Rw/L1.2)
Thanks to Alison Smith for this idea.
You can bring words alive for your learners by using scripts in reading exercises - many scripts from film, television and theatre are easily available from bookshops. Assign different parts to different readers, and work through a few pages of the script as a class, with parts changing over every so often to ensure variety and a sharing of burden. When the reading is done, discuss the extract and the words used with the class.

Increasing reader confidence
(Literacy curriculum)
Thanks to Derek S who sent in this idea.
I use Comic Sans MS for handouts, it has made such a difference to the reading confidence of many of my students. The other big breakthrough for me was a change to mid-blue paper. So many students tell me that the letters stop moving around once they are printed on blue paper. I'm told yellow is good too.

Navigation - finding out about anything
(Literacy curriculum - Rt/L1.4)
Undertake guided 'web hunts' designed to practise finding information on the web. Use the search facility at the top of the BBCi page to hunt for information on anything, from Harry Potter to Formula 1.

Flipping pancakes
(Literacy curriculum - Rt/L1.1)
Get flipping in class on pancake day. Read about the history of pancakes and try out some great recipes. Jumble up a recipe so students have to read it closely to really understand the text and put it in a logical order.

Planning a holiday
(Literacy curriculum - Rt/L1.4)
Students can practise finding information on the web by planning a holiday for themselves or their family. Get them to choose a destination, find information on travel insurance and check the weather forecast.

Reading strategies - what time is it on?
(Literacy curriculum - Rt/L1.5)
Find out when favourite shows are on the tv or radio by looking at the 'What's On' channel listings. E.g. ask students to find out what time EastEnders is on air and the storyline of the next episode.

Finding the right words to help find the wrong ones
(Literacy curriculum - MSS/L1.2,MSS1/L1.4,MSS1/L1.10)
(Thanks to Susan F who sent in this idea.)
Use real life examples of text to bring comprehension exercises to life. Discuss restaurant menus, newspaper articles, job applications, directions and maps or magazine quizzes with the class and then get them to write their own to see how closely they've observed the style used. This activity can be extended to look at minor speeches, for example a mock job interview script or a magazine interview with a pop star.

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