Functional literacy with instructions and labels

Resource Description

Your vocational, pathways and life skills students will love building their functional reading skills with this new unit on reading instructions and labels! It's perfect for a print and go summer school unit on functional literacy, or for providing a complete literacy learning packet to support students on your caseload who are working towards real world literacy goals for independent living.

Why teach functional literacy?

Functional literacy helps students become independent adults. It teaches them the fundamental reading, writing and comprehension skills they need to operate in the community, making their own choices about everything from how to manage money through to where to find a recipe for a meal.

Instructions and labels are an important part of functional literacy, so it is important students can read, understand and use them easily. Instructions and labels help us understand how to use items, complete daily tasks, complete a process or find important information. Instructions and labels are used in everything from washing machine instructions to changing the batteries in a remote control. Being able to find key words, understand the meaning and context and apply the information to everyday situations can help build independence skills for the future.

Who is it for?

This resource is suited to high school and young adult life skills, transition and vocational students who are learning about functional reading skills with instructions and labels at home and in the community. Each topic has 2 pages – one with a reading and comprehension task and the other with an application task to add real-world context and interest. The pages are age-appropriate for learners who are teen to young adult, with black and white imagery and a simple, easy-to-use page format.

Students who will benefit from this resource include:

• Life Skills
• Transition
• Work Education
• Foundation Skills
• ESL / EFL

What's included?

1.Using the washing machine

2.Cleaning windows

3.Taking medicine

4.Changing batteries

5.Making compost

6.Using a QR code

7.Making cordial

8.Using children’s paracetamol

9.Cooking pasta

10.Ordering pizza

11.Making packet soup

12.Using stain remover

13.Blender safety in the kitchen

14.Heating baked beans in the microwave

15.Paying with a credit card

16.Storing food

Each topic includes 2 pages - one to build reading and comprehension skills and the second to encourage application and deeper understanding. There are 32 printable pages in total.

Notes:

Measurements are in metric units.

Some pages include health related information and should not be used as a replacement for professional health advice. Do not use the dosage information in the antibiotic or paracetamol pages as recommended doses - these pages have been developed for instructional use only.

Some pages contain references to activities that should be conducted only with appropriate supervision, such as cooking and household cleaning tasks.

Here’s how:

Print or upload the pages for your students. Discuss written instructions and give examples of everyday household and community settings where instructions are important. Demonstrate how to find key words in the text and to search for information in the graphics and visuals as well as the text. Remind students to use decoding skills and to read the text several times before answering the questions. Provide resources to support application tasks or prompts as needed. This will often be an internet research task, a discussion group or a home-based practical activity.