A comprehensive Functional Skills English comparison skills resource designed to help students develop the skills needed to compare texts, viewpoints, perspectives, language, purpose, audience and tone.

This resource is particularly useful for NCFE Functional Skills English Level 1 and Level 2, GCSE English Language revision, intervention, cover lessons and independent study.

What is included?

The resource introduces students to the fundamentals of comparison, including:

Identifying similarities and differences between texts
Using comparative language effectively
Comparing explicit and implicit information
Comparing viewpoints and perspectives
Identifying shared opinions and contrasting opinions
Analysing purpose, audience and tone
Comparing language choices
Comparing different text types
Considering visual language and presentation
Developing comparative paragraphs
Selecting evidence to support comparisons

Students are guided from simple comparisons towards more sophisticated comparison of texts and perspectives.

Practical comparison activities

The resource uses accessible, relevant examples to make comparison skills concrete and approachable. Activities include comparing dogs and cats, comparing viewpoints about working from home, and comparing different text types including a personal blog and news article.

The working-from-home activity provides two contrasting perspectives, allowing students to identify explicit information, implied meaning, shared viewpoints and differences between writers.

The final activities develop students’ ability to compare multiple texts and culminate in a 4-mark comparative writing task.

Ideal for
Functional Skills English Level 1
Functional Skills English Level 2
NCFE Functional Skills English
GCSE English Language intervention
English resit classes
Adult learners
Further Education
SEND and lower-confidence learners
Revision lessons
Cover lessons
Independent learning
Homework

A structured, classroom-ready resource for explicitly teaching comparison skills rather than simply asking students to compare two texts and hoping they know how.