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Hmmm. This is a difficult one. Because Functional English does was it says on the tin and gets the students using the skills, it would make sense to start with the reading and writing as this will (hopefully!) help them with their main qualification. However, and this is a big however, because any lesson with the word "skills" in it encourages the students to challenge every blooming thing you try to do, starting off with pure English skills tends to get their backs right up! In Communication Key Skills I always start off with research in preparation for Discussion, allowing them (under some supervision) to choose the topic. This kind of gets them on board and then we approach (gingerly!) the writing skills once they are used to me, each other etc. The other problem is that the Functional English exam is more difficult to pass than your Key Skills exam and teaching it should involve emphasis on them practising everything they learn in a "real-life" situation, to get them used to writing the kind of thing they will be expected to write in the exam. This obviously takes time. In an ideal world I would split the first set of lessons, with some concentrating on preparation for and holding the Discussion, whilst introducing the writing skills in the second part of the lesson. However, when I have tried to do this, I have struggled as they get so involved in their research and Discussion prep I haven't had the heart to stop them half-way through the lesson. There are others on here who will have much more experience of teaching FS and how they have got their best results. I have only taught it once and over a very short period of time. My Schemes of Work are very much related to the resources I use. I can get hold of the Functional English one I prepared last year when I thought I was going to have a proper class as part of the Specialist Diploma but that died a death. You can have it if you want! It might give you some ideas.
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