Longhill Literacy: Communicate Like An Expert

1. LonghillLiteracy: Communicate Like An Expert Think about how it looks. Does it look right? Sound out the word. Eg. Feb-ru-ar-y Bus-i-ness Is there a rule: Mnemonics (Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move) Phrases (there is ‘a rat’ in separate) Analogy (‘ice’ is a noun, so is ‘practice’; ‘ise’ is not a noun, neither is ‘practise’ – it’s a verb) Look it up in a dictionary/spellchecker. Ask a friend or teacher. To learn it: look, cover, write, check. Can I spell accurately? Capital Letters The Apostrophe Literacy Marking Perfect Punctuation • Do not use capital letters for no reason. • ‘I’ is a capital letter when used as a personal pronoun eg) I am happy. • Sentences begin with a capital letter. • Speaking begins with a capital letter. • Proper nouns have capital letters e.g. Brighton, Elizabeth, Mr. Smith. • Days of the week (Tuesday) and months of the year (July) have capital letters. • Titles have capital letters. • Abbreviations have capital letters. • The names of languages (Spanish) start with a capital letter Apostrophe for missing letters Eg. Do not > Don’t The ‘o’ is missing from not. Apostrophe for possession Apostrophes are used to show when something belongs to someone or something. ‘s is added to the end of the name of the person it belongs to. E.g. If a bag belongs to Joe then we say it is Joe’s bag. If the word already ends in ‘s’ then we add the apostrophe after the ‘s’. Eg. the coats belong to the boys > the boys’ coats. NOTE – DON’T USE APOSTROPHES FOR PLURALS His shoes NOT His shoe’s Note also its, which shows that something owns something (like our, his, etc.) does not take an apostrophe: the dog ate its bone and we ate our dinner.

2. LonghillLiteracy: Communicate Like An Expert Internet Checklist Skimming: You read quickly through the sentences getting a gist of the text. Look for clues – the first sentence of each paragraph (the ‘topic sentence’). Scanning:You use this to retrieve particular pieces of information. Identify and then search though the text for specific words.Remember key points in a text are likely to be in the first and last paragraphs Other strategies: Predicting: Make informed guesses about the text. Questioning: Ask questions about what you’ve read. Reading backwards: Read backwards to focus on each word. Inferring: Read between the lines to find the meaning. How good are my listening skills? Listen out for key words Watch the speaker to understand their body language Focus on the speaker’s voice Don’t fiddle or create distractions Think of questions you may want to ask. Take your turn and don’t interrupt others. Use standard English unless in character Use a clear an confident voice Speak slightly slower than normal Project your voice Keep anything you are reading in front of you but do not block your mouth – people lip read to help them understand! Use eye contact with your audience Use gesture and movement Keep your shoulders down low Use these sentence starters when you want to agree with a point that has been made: I agree and… Yes. That’s what I think too. I …. I would like to build on Rosie’s point… Good point Jake. I also think… My view is the same… In addition I think… Use these sentence starters when you want to disagree with a point that has been made: I accept your point however… I know why you think that but… I’m not sure I can agree with that because… I respect your opinion but I think… I understand what you are saying but have you considered… In contrast to Ben’s point I think… To persuade: You want your audience to come round to your way of thinking. To argue: to present your ideas in contrast to others’ ideas. To inform: To give your audience facts, understanding and your opinion. To advise: To help your audience with an issue. To converse: To have a conversation with another. To act: To present a character and stay inrole. How good are my speaking skills? Can I agree with others? Can I disagree with others? Can I adapt my style of speech for different purposes? READING Speaking and Listening Reading – what can I do to help understand the text? • If you are reading information from a website, use the following checks to judge the reliability of the information: • Where– did the author get the information from? • When – was the information created or updated (is it recent?) • Who is the author? Do they list their occupation, experience, education or other credentials? • Who is the audience for the author? Are they writing to inform, persuade, explain? • What information is provided? How does it compare with what you know already? How does it change what you know? How true do you think the information is?