Word recognition

Children in Need
(Literacy E1 to E3)
Do you want to know all the bizarre things people have done to raise money for Children in Need, or are you seeking inspiration for your own fundraising mayhem? You can use the Pudsey site at all levels of the curriculum. Find ideas, cut them up, add your own...

Learning letters
(Literacy curriculum - Rw/E1.3)
Thanks to Emma S who sent in this idea.
I have been involved in a dyslexia awareness session where we looked at tactile learning. One method of learning letters was to use plain wooden cut-outs. These letters enable the student to experience the 'feel' of the letters, without interference from colour or style. The student can rotate the shapes in their hands and this adds a new quality to the learning process involved.

Looking up words

Dictionary circular definition game
(Literacy curriculum - Rw/E3.3)
Thanks to Susan F for this idea.
To encourage students to use a dictionary I invented the circular definition game. Look up a word, either for a reason or at random. Choose a significant entry from the definition (i.e. not 'and' or 'to'). Look that up. Choose another entry and so on to build as long a chain as possible. If the dictionary resorts to a straight a=b and b=a approach then it loses. If you choose badly out of a number of options and force yourself to loop back into your chain sooner than it does then you lose, but you can always go back and try a different path.

Call My Bluff
(Literacy curriculum - Rw/L2.2)
Thanks to Mandy M who sent in this idea.
Call My Bluff is a great word game to play as a mental starter at the beginning of the lesson. It obviously encourages dictionary use and has caused much jollity in my Level 1/2 adult literacy class. The students break into two teams and each pick a difficult word from the dictionary and the others in the team make up a plausible alternative. It also really encourages imaginative thinking.

Dictionary for foodies
(Literacy curriculum - Rw/L1.1)
Use the Glossary section of Food to make sure you know the difference between quinoa and lentils. Give students the tasks of finding the meanings of words connected with cooking and food.

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Types of words

Entering personal details into application forms
(Literacy curriculum - Ww/E2.1)
Use the range of forms on BBCi to help students practise completing their personal details. Using the SEARCH facility in the top right hand corner of the BBCi homepage type in 'application form'. It will bring up a list of forms you can print out and use.

Specialist vocabulary - the Allergy Guide
(Literacy curriculum - Rw/L1.2)
Read and understand specialist explanatory vocabulary by looking at one of the Health site's guides, such as the guide to allergies. Print out pages for students and ask them to highlight technical and specialist vocabulary. There is also a Medical Terms Explained section where students can look up and check meanings.

Abbreviations and txt msgs
(Literacy curriculum - Rw/L1.2)
Check out your text knowledge with a guide to deciphering text messages. You’ll LOL at some of the abbreviations!

Different types of text
(Literacy curriculum - Rw/L1.2)
On the Bitesize Revision site for Key Stage 3 there are many pages suitable for Basic Skills learners. In the English section you can read about the format and structure of different types of text.

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More interesting words

What does success mean to you?
(Literacy curriculum - Rw/L1.2)
Everyone dreams of being successful, but what does it mean to your students? In this quiz they can select five words that describe what success means to them. This exercise will help students increase their vocabulary.

Film reviews and descriptive text
(Literacy curriculum - Rw/L1.2)
Visit the Films site to pick out some film reviews. Underline the words that indicate a particular mood (e.g. "threat", "chilling" and "brooding" for a horror film) and discuss the connotations of these words for the reader. Take it further by asking students to write a review of their favourite film.

Txt msgs
(Literacy curriculum - Rw/L1.3)
Thanks to Jo T who sent in this idea.
Though some people are against mobile text spelling, it needs to be discussed in class so learners understand when it is and when it isn't acceptable. However, if you didn't want to encourage the use of phones in class you could still use students' fascination with txt msgs as a basis for other work. Use txt msgs out of class for a spelling game, 'Pass It On'. One person comes up with a word that fits certain criteria, such as starting with 'ch', and texts it to the next who thinks of another and passes it on and so on. In the next class you can see how far it got, or how many words were thought up.

Learning new words
(Literacy curriculum - Rw/L1.3)
Thanks to Susan F who sent in this idea.
Words lists can be used to help students learn new vocabulary, for example overnight homework for a test the next day. As a refinement of this you could encourage your pupil to create their own mini-dictionary of words they like to use or find difficult to remember. This could be in a small notebook or on a computer.

Mobile lingo
(Literacy curriculum - Rw/L1.3)
Learn the language of the street and text messages. How many phrases can your students use in a one minute conversation? Check out the other Lingo topics such as Music, Sport and Money.

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