Working on reading, writing and spelling is the primary reason learners come to us at Kerry Adult Literacy and Basic Education Service. It forms the core of our business, both in one to one and group tuition. To teach an adult in this setting takes considerable skill, and we take pride in the high quality of our tutors’ work across the county.

Some good sites to visit:

Bear in mind please that the skills of reading, writing and spelling are intertwined. They are best taught together, and most of these sites feature activities and resources across reading, writing and more, so it’s worth exploring them carefully.

  • Listen Read Write – readers for literacy students
  • The Tutors’ Corner at NALA.ie has loads of free resources
  • Adult Literacies Online Scotland has a fantastic bank of all sorts of resources – general literacy, workplace, numeracy, ICT, learning difficulties and more
  • Excellence Gateway The UK English Adult Literacy Core Curriculum, giving an overview of the curriculum, activities, ideas, suggestions and links to materials and research and also ideas for integrating employability.
  • How to Spell – a nice, easy introduction to spelling. Most lessons include a video and an exercise.
  • Skills Workshop  a really useful site from the UK for literacy, numeracy, ESOL, IT and lifeskills resources
  • BBC Skillswise: One of the most useful websites for adult literacy tuition. Includes printable and on screen activities across English, Maths and Job Skills.
  • Share My Lesson – this is a huge American site for teachers to share and download all sorts of really useful resources – look at English Language Arts for a lot of reading, writing and spelling. Be careful if using any aimed at young children, make sure you adapt them for adult learners.
  • Puzzlemakers: Create and print your very own word search, criss-cross, math puzzles, and more-using your own word lists.
  • Word Scrambler: Create Word Scramble puzzles using your own words
  • ToolsForEnglish.com: All sorts of exercise making tools like gap fill, multiple choice, sentence scramble.
  • ABC Fast Phonics  Listen to the sounds of highlighted words.  Included are the names of alphabet letters, consonants, vowels and vowel rules, letter blends and common words.
  • Englishforeveryone.org  Tons of printable worksheets, aimed at non-native speakers of English, but if you are looking for something specific around a grammar point, it’s a good place to look.
  • Phonics4free: A Step by Step phonics programme  available online free of charge. It’s suitable for all ages including adults. Includes videos and downloadable worksheets.

English Dictionaries

  • The free Dictionary by Farlex: A varied and interesting site. The dictionary is one part, but it also includes online spelling testing, quotes and articles relating to the date, and lots more that could be of interest to a learner.
  • Online English Dictionaries: This list includes Dictionary.com which is useful as it breaks the words up in to syllables. It also provides a pronunciation of the words, but in an American accent. The Cambridge Dictionary does not break the words up into syllables but has the option of an English or an American accent when pronouncing the words
  • The Merriam Webster English Dictionary Online: also has the option of breaking up the words in to syllables with an English pronunciation and has a less cluttered screen.

Are there any sites you find useful that should be on this list? Please email them to your organiser for submission to the Webmaster Committee

Some shared resources from Kerry ETB tutors – coming soon! Watch this space!

We would like to encourage Kerry ABE tutors, past and present, to share tried and tested high quality resources that could be of use to other tutors, both for one to one classes and for groups. Please download the following three documents to find out how to do this, and get in touch with your local organiser when you are ready to share your best work.

Our tutor website is a place for you to share the fantastic work you do for Kerry ETB. It is a place for the Adult Literacy and Basic Education Service of Kerry ETB to support you in the following:

  • Learning from your colleagues about how they do things in their classrooms and benefitting from their knowledge and experience
  • Accessing a range of resources to suit different teaching and learning styles and abilities, all of which have been developed here in Kerry for our learners
  • Challenging yourself as a tutor by going beyond your comfort zone and your habitual teaching style to try something new that has worked for someone else
  • Saving time – there’s no need to start with a blank page when someone else has delivered what you need to deliver. You can use their work as a starting point for your own.

Guidelines for tutors on sharing resources on Kerry ABE Tutors website

Sample shared resource

The design of learning materials is just as important as the content – NALA guidelines