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A really clear grammar site - About.com

This is a great site for in-depth clarification of grammar points - use their search bar.

Sunday, 27 November 2016

Work for Mon and Tues 28th/29th

Independents,

I am going for a chest x-ray tomorrow so I definitely won't be back before Friday but I have replied to all the emails I've had so get in contact if anything is stopping you progressing.

As you will have found out from the research you've been doing on reading from this set work,  working out our written language rules is even more complex and "unnatural" than learning the complexities and irregularities of spoken language. For example, the letter combination 'ough' can be read out 8 different ways (listen to the different sounds it makes in 'tough', 'thought, and 'through').

Orthography is anything to do with the way words are written down, including font, italics etc. and also spelling. English has what is called a 'defective orthography' when it comes to spelling/sound connections because written letters (graphemes) do not correlate in predictable ways to spoken sounds (phonemes). Watch this video (6.5 mins) and take notes to get an idea of the problems this causes and how significant the process is for all the written interactions we face in our lives and why so many people struggle. The Children of the Code website has many other videos on offer - I haven't seen many of them but they describe themselves as a 'social education project' and there are some serious academics involved, so it seems like a really reliable source for wider reading.


Post research on your blog about why reading (and writing if you discover references to this) is so difficult (you can use the video as one of your sources), giving examples that you can refer to in the exam. Try and note down memorable quotes from significant researchers/theorists/academics. It may be worth watching videos more than once to allow you to understand first and then note-take, pausing to write down quotes etc - if you only watch once, you may find it disjointed, although it is useful to eventually be able to take notes in 'real time'. Use at least 1.5 hours for this research and do it during Monday's lesson time so that should be up by Tuesday (along with the previous reading research questions). As always, ensure you post your bibliography.

Record yourself reading aloud something complex/challenging. When you listen back, notice what caused you to slow down, pause, false start or miscue - can you notice any patterns? Is it unfamiliar vocabulary? Lack of pragmatic understanding of the topic? Syntax and complexity of the sentence? Other things? Please keep good notes (with examples) on this for class discussion.

Then continue with coursework.

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