Family Life Book 1

"Family Life" is a series of worksheets suited to young adult literacy students who are ready to build confidence in their use of language. The resource is also suitable for ESOL students at an elementary level. The reading level suggested for successful outcomes with this resource is 11-14 years old. The units of work revolve around the domestic activities of the Marshall family: Mum, Dad, three children, pets, neighbours and relatives. Much of the targeted vocabulary will be recognised by the student, but may not be used in the student's own speech. Although there are reading and writing tasks, the objective is to increase students' word knowledge and their spoken language ability using this resource. A vocabulary list is given at the beginning of each unit of work. A variety of words from different parts of speech are targeted.This is a deliberate strategy to encourage students to move away from simple naming and labelling activities to more complex language use. From each list, students should circle or underline any words they already know and can use correctly. The teacher may want to create dialogue with the student to check correct usage.
At the end of the unit this type of oral exercise should be repeated, this time asking the student to use words that they were not previously familiar with. If, at the end of a unit, the student is unable to use a targeted word correctly, she/he may be directed back to the script and language tasks to work through again. It is envisaged that because of the domestic nature of the scenarios, the student will be able to personalise the situation and use the word in relation to something familiar from his or her own life. Each word from the vocabulary list is found both in the reading and the activity sections of the units.The repetition will give the student the opportunity to see the word used in a variety of contexts. As well as the teacher facilitating the oral work, students may work through the activities on their own. Some of the units may lend themselves to further class or group discussion.How the resource is organizedUnit One introduces the family members who become characters in the following units. The Marshall family have just bought a new home and the first few units discuss the home renovations they undertake.
Other family activities such as visiting relatives, chores, jobs and buying a car are all included in the form of a serialised story. However, each unit is self-contained and may be used separately if the topic is suited to some other curriculum area students are working on.The activities include a variety of comprehension skills to go beyond basic recall. Literal, inferential and evaluative strategies to improve literacy skills and lexical acquisition include true/false, multiple choice, matching and sequencing, plus filling in blanks and charts. Some inferential and evaluative questions are included to encourage students to think beyond the words. Students may occasionally offer opinions or draw conclusions in sentence writing tasks. However the format throughout follows a similar pattern so students working through the units on their own do not have to tackle complex sets of instructions in order to complete the tasks.The extension activities include: students draw a floor plan of their own home, or design a home, label all rooms and fixtures, for example, en-suite, kitchen cupboards etc; use bathroom specialists' brochures and flyers for students to price purchases for renovating a complete bathroom; and draw up a shopping list with prices.
This can be done with other rooms depending on the availability of building supply brochures.