Level 3 and Level 4 Literacy taster sessions

Materials to support the delivery of a taster session for people wishing to undertake the Literacy Level 3 Subject Support and Level 4 Subject Specialist qualifications

The materials were developed as part of the LSC Tees Valley Support Project 03/04 for Skills for Life teachers in the Work-based Learning sector.

The focus of the activity is on personal literacy skills, and specifically on metalanguage (language or symbols used to describe/classify a language or set of symbols e.g. syntax, semantics). The objective is to help people develop confidence in their ability to understand and apply metalanguage.

You may like to try an ice-breaker before starting on the Glossary Activity:

• find some ‘Trivial Pursuits’ cards! 


• select out several word origin related questions, such as “what does a triskaidekaphobic* fear?” (the green science questions or brown literature ones are good for this!)


• mark the relevant questions on the cards


• put people into pairs or teams depending on numbers


• take turns to ask the marked questions and keep scores

You’ll find this generates lots of insights and shared knowledge on words and their origins, and the key learning point is that they are only words – just like the ones you’re about to show them on the activity cards (semantics, pragmatics, metaphors…).

* fear of the number 13!