Adult Literacy Core Curriculum - Nationally developed Skills for Life ...

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The Adult Literacy
Core Curriculum
At this level,
adults can
read and understand
short, straightforward texts on
familiar topics accurately and
independently
read and obtain information
from everyday sources
in texts such as forms, notes,
records, e-mails, narratives,
letters, diagrams, simple
instructions, short reports
Sentence Focus Grammar and punctuation Rs/E3
Skills, knowledge and understanding
Adults should be taught to:
1 recognise and understand the
organisational features and typical
language of instructional texts (e.g.
use of imperatives, second person)
– understand that instructional texts have
particular language features, and be able to
recognise them
– understand that their own knowledge of
these features can be applied to help gain
meaning from other instructional texts
– know and use the term verb and
understand its importance as an essential
feature of a sentence which conveys the
action
– understand that verbs also convey time in a
sentence: past, present, future
2
3
use implicit and explicit knowledge of
different types of word (e.g. linking words
[connectives], nouns, verbs, adjectives),
of word order, and of possible plausible
meanings, to help decode unfamiliar
words and predict meaning
– understand that grammatical patterns,
word order, types of word and meanings
are inter-related and that only certain
types of words and certain meanings will
make sense in any particular place in a
sentence
use punctuation and capitalisation to aid
understanding
– understand that different punctuation marks
are used for different purposes and know
their names, including: speech marks to
mark off what a speaker says from the
surrounding text; commas to separate
words in a list, or parts of a sentence
– understand that punctuation relates to
sentence structure and text type to help the
reader make sense of the written text, and
apply this understanding in their own
reading
Example
Recognise the language of instructions in
their own life, e.g.:
– Write in block capitals.
– Put the CD in the drive.
– Empty contents into a saucepan and stir
gently over a low heat.
Read a simple continuous text written in
sentences (e.g. a newspaper article) and
get most of the sense even if they are not
able to read every word.
Recognise when questions are being asked
on a form by noting the question mark and
using this information to help their reading
and predict meaning, e.g. How long have you
lived at your present address?