Literacy problems to solve for Key Stage 1, 2 and 3

What am I??

A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a word. E.g. telephone – tele means far off, phone means sound. So a telephone is something that gives us a sound from far off. You can create a web of words by using the morphemes to make more words.

Now you try. How many connections can you make from the word – subject (ject –throw, sub – under, or to be under the control of).
Or why not try one of these; tele/graph, micro/scope, herb/ology,

How many syllables

How many words can you create using these syllables? Once you have made your words check in the thesaurus to find other similar words. You might want to print off this sheet and cut it up so that you can move the syllables around.

Exploring dialect

Writing in dialect
Most of you will hear a local dialect spoken almost every day, whether by your friends or your parents or on television. But it's very unusual to see writing in a local dialect: almost all writing is in Standard English. Sometimes you see conversation in novels that is written in dialect, and you sometimes see poetry or jokes written in dialect.

This extract from Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights uses local dialect for one of the characters, Joseph, who is a sour tempered old servant:

We made ourselves as snug as our means allowed in the arch of the dresser. I had just fastened our pinafores together, and hung them up for a curtain; when in comes Joseph, on an errand from the stables. He tears down my handywork, boxes my ears and croaks:
'T' maister nobbut just buried, and Sabbath nut oe'red und t'sahnd uh't gospel still i' yer lugs, and yah darr be laiking! shame on ye! sit ye dahn, ill chiler! they's good books eneugh if ye'll read 'em:, sit ye dahn and think uh yer sowls!'
Saying this, he compelled us to square our positions that we might receive, from the far off fire, a dull ray to show us the text of the lumber he thrust upon us.
I could not bear the employment. I took my dingy volume by the scroop, and hurled it into the dog-kennel, vowing I hated a good book.
Heathcliff kicked his to the same place
T hen there was a hubbub!
'Maister Hindley!' shouted our chaplain. Maister, coom hither! Miss Cathy's riven th' back off 'Th' Helmet uh Salvation', un Heathcliff's pawed his fit intuh t' first part uh ''T' Broad Way to Destruction''! It's fair flaysome ut flaysome ut yah, let 'em goa on this gait. Ech! th' owd ud uh laced 'em properly - bud he's goan!''

1. Practise reading the passage aloud. Try to show Joseph's strong Yorkshire accent, but also his anger and outrage at the children's behaviour.
2. Do you think the passage benefits from using local dialect for Joseph's speech? What would be the difference if Joseph spoken in Standard English?

Accent vocabulary or grammar?

Regional dialects differ from Standard English in three ways:

• in their accents, i.e. the same words sound different
• in their vocabulary, i.e. there are some different words
• in their grammar i.e. some words are formed and used differently.

In the table below Joseph's first speech has broken down to show which part of the dialect are accent, vocabulary or grammar.

Work with a partner to explain why each of the words has been put in the accent, vocabulary or grammar column. For example:

• nobbut is in the vocabulary column because it is a local word that is being used instead of the Standard English words only.
• T' is in the accent column because it is the same word as the in Standard English, but it is pronounced differently.

1. Work with a partner to complete the table below for Joseph's second speech.
2. Compare your columns with another pair of pupils. Do you have the same answers? Explain to each other why you have chosen each column.

Wordswork was from North East Lincolnshire's Literacy Team