Dealing with Entry Levels

The problem with resources for Entry Level Functional Skills is the ‘real-life’ aspect. These activities all require Functional Skills:

• Applying for a passport
• Shopping for groceries
• Booking a holiday
• Applying for a job
• Finding a place to live

How many real-life resources to complete these tasks will be at Entry Level 1, or indeed Entry 2 or Entry 3? Virtually none I would say. So the key for dealing with Entry Levels will be to source materials at the correct ability and interest level for your students.

You will need to use a variety of authentic materials to help build and apply your students’ functional skills but, unless you are able to purchase them ready-differentiated, you will have to simplify them accordingly. It’s time-consuming but essential. Personally it’s one of the aspects of my work that I have always found the most rewarding – devising a source material that I know will appeal to the interests of my students and be written at a level accessible to them.