Making Britain Numerate and Making Britain Literate are two workbooks written to support learners, including ESOL learners, studying Functional Skills either as part of an apprenticeship or as stand-alone qualifications.
The up-to-date contextualised materials offer worked examples and a step by step guide through all areas required for achievement of functional skills maths and English. They are designed both to support learners directly and to support tutors in supporting their learners.
The books contain a detailed analysis of the main issues surrounding the development of learners’ literacy, language and numeracy skills. They focus on the areas of difficulty that many learners face and offer solutions in the form of a range of ideas, methods and resources to resolve those difficulties. The up-to-date contextualised materials offer worked examples and a step by step guide through all areas required for achievement of functional skills maths and English. They are designed both to support learners directly and to support tutors in supporting their learners.
About the author
Kevin Norley currently teaches adult English and maths at Bedford College. In addition to these books, he has also recently co-edited a book entitled “Contemporary approaches in education”, has been widely published in internationally edited journals and books, and has presented papers (on subjects including multicultural education, mentoring, technology and teaching methods, the development of numeracy skills, social class and education, the development of writing skills, and factors affecting the language development of EAL learners) at a variety of international conferences (including at universities in Helsinki, Seoul, Oxford, St Petersburg, Sarajevo, Rome and Istanbul). Following an invitation from the IASSR (International Association of Social Science Research), he also presented one of his papers as a keynote speaker at their conference in Bucharest in 2015.
Functional Skills maths
The third edition of Making Britain Numerate includes additional resources to support achievement of level 2 Functional Skills maths. The questions are rigorous and reflect the type of real life, topical questions that are set in level 2 Functional Skills maths tests. They allow for the amount and level of reading required to successfully complete the tests, and reflect the need for learners to be able to interpret, extract and utilise relevant information from a range of sources. Real life situations covered include: on-line shopping; food labelling; energy bills; fuel costs and fuel efficiency; unemployment; equality and diversity; Body Mass Index; the weather; the Olympics; health and safety; internet research and understanding your payslip.
Functional Skills English
The third edition of Making Britain Literate includes additional resources to support achievement of level 2 Functional Skills English, including numerous discussion-based articles and reading and writing, and presentation, exercises, some of which also reflect the type of real life, topical questions that are set in level 2 Functional Skills English tests. Topics covered include: childhood obesity; health; organ donation; standards in education; time; elocution; unemployment; renewable energy sources; internet research and film reviews.
Amongst other things, the book explores and explains the importance of the understanding of grammar and word classes in developing literacy and language skills.
The book also has an ESOL section, which contains an analysis of the difficulties faced by ESOL learners in this country, along with an analysis of a transcribed conversation (including grammar and phonological patterns) , of a reading session, and of a writing sample, along with additional ESOL resources.
How to order
Both books are available to order online – see below.
