What (if anything) have recent Literacy initiatives taught our children?

Germanshepherdsmum

I confess to starting sentences with ‘and’ and ‘but’ when writing nowadays, contrary to what I was taught - I also find myself splitting an infinitive and not caring. However, correct spelling is a must.

IIRC there are plenty of sentences starting with ‘and’ in the King James Bible.
I don’t know about the relatively banal-sounding modernised Bible - I dare say they’ve corrected all those.

As for split infinitives, I read ages ago that the ‘rule’ was laid down by 18thC grammarians who sought to regularise the English language. Their reasoning apparently was that because you can’t split an infinitive in ‘perfect language’ Latin, you should therefore not do so in English.
So I’ve blithely ignored that daft rule ever since.

😁

Calistemon, I seen what you done their!

Daddima

Callistemon21

Grandmajean

So sorry ! forgot to check back. YRNETN is , of course ,wire netting !

😂😂😂

I would never have got that!!

I ought to have written it in capital letters at 10.57, as it seems to have been overlooked.

I’ve just seen ,’ get your tickets in advance,so no need to que’.

Than queue!! 😁

SueDonim

People will always have varied abilities when it comes to spelling and that’s part of life, I guess.

What does annoys me is the carelessness with grammar and spelling on websites like the BBC. They really ought to know better. Maybe I should send them my children’s old copy of the Ladybird Book of Spelling and Grammar. 🤔

I like your first paragraph, I think it links in nicely with your name SueDonim.
Which in turn, I find to be a most likeable play on spelling a word differently! 🙂

Callistemon21

Grandmajean

So sorry ! forgot to check back. YRNETN is , of course ,wire netting !

😂😂😂

I would never have got that!!

I ought to have written it in capital letters at 10.57, as it seems to have been overlooked.

I’ve just seen ,’ get your tickets in advance,so no need to que’.

Overthemoongran
🤣🤣
Just as well teachers are adept at translating misspellings.

When the children were told that I was going to be working in a different school the following term I was a little concerned to receive a death threat …” I don’t want you to live”. It was from one of my class who had learning difficulties, he didn’t want me to LEAVE!

Mamie792

Sorry, that flew away too early so before I’m bombarded by perfectionists - yes, spelling and grammar are important but communication and understanding is paramount in this troubled world.

Exactly.
Poor spelling , grammar or punctuation can make a mockery of the intended meaning.

“Woman without her man is nothing.
Woman, without her man is nothing “

“Let’s eat, Grandma
Let’s eat Grandma”

“Please bear with me
Please bare with me”

MissAdventure

I seem to remember, at school, that spelling mattered, then didn't, then possibly did again.
When one niece and nephew were at school, their primary school didn’t correct spellings, “because it stultified their creativity”, but didn’t seem to teach them either, but I’ve never worked in a school that didn’t have a spelling scheme, even before synthetic phonics started.

I seem to remember, at school, that spelling mattered, then didn't, then possibly did again.

We also didn't have lessons, as such.

We chose what we did and when, from a selection that was written on the up for the day.

Ita was fading when I started teaching, my first school used it (1970)
Real reading was a short lived initiative around 1987

Language isn't just about spelling and grammar. Language is communication, sharing thoughts ideas and feelings.

I remember as a teenager loving ee. cummings because he refused to stick to the rules of grammar. So here's a favourite poem.
since feeling is first
since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
—the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

and death i think is no parenthesis

What years were those easybee

Not sure if my kids were caught up in that.
They went to a "good" Primary school. But for some reason, I needed to do spellings at home with them a lot, as the school were not great on them, for some reason or other.

Spare a thought for the children taught in their early years to read and write through I.T.A (Initial Teaching Alphabet), Emergent Writing, Real Books and other dubious and now discredited methods. These left pupils uncertain of correct spelling, encouraged by those who proclaimed spelling does not matter and should not be allowed to impede their supposed creativity as communication is what counts, even though others cannot read it . ( I do not criticize Special Needs pupils, but they too need guidance towards correct spelling.)

Grandmajean

I know that rhyme Mollygo !
In case anyone is being driven mad by it just start by saying
"Too wise ---- and you'll get it.

👏👏👏

I can't understand a thing you're all writing.

I know that rhyme Mollygo !
In case anyone is being driven mad by it just start by saying
"Too wise ---- and you'll get it.

Grandmajean

So sorry ! forgot to check back. YRNETN is , of course ,wire netting !

😂😂😂

I would never have got that!!

Grandmajean

So sorry ! forgot to check back. YRNETN is , of course ,wire netting !

Thanks. I did wonder. It reminded me of that rhyme
YYUR
YYUB
ICUR
YY4me

So sorry ! forgot to check back. YRNETN is , of course ,wire netting !

I sometimes start with an "And" - for emphasis - but of course I wouldn't use it in formal writing.

I also use an Oxford comma (for clarification) now and then.

I just love a sentence beginning with ‘and’. It’s so emphatic. I had a terrible time with bowlsful, and cupsful ,with a proof reader. And also an hotel. I expect you can imaging what she preferred.

Sorry, that flew away too early so before I’m bombarded by perfectionists - yes, spelling and grammar are important but communication and understanding is paramount in this troubled world.

Yrntn was used by an SEN student of mine who was delighted by a lesson in gardening but could not spell wire netting . I thought that was quite clever. We have all probably seen paragraphs where all vowels are omitted yet we still understand. I also find it sad if children’s creativity is stifled by the need for perfect spelling and grammar which