What is Literacy?

Literacy is not just about spelling and punctuation. It is something that you do in all subjects, and something that you will need when you leave Todmorden High School in everyday life and in your careers.

To be a rounded student, you need to be able to engage with a variety of texts to challenge preconceptions and develop

understanding beyond the personal and immediate, to reflect on what you have read.

Literacy is about experimenting with language and exploring different ways of discovering and shaping your own meaning.

Literacy is about being able to explain your ideas in depth. In an increasingly globalised world, it is important that you are able to communicate with authority, and speak with confidence and clarity.

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When you are checking through your work, the first thing you should check for is correct punctuation and spelling. This is going to be a large focus when you take your exams. So it is better to ensure we have it all nailed now. Task: Use a green pen to add in any spelling

and punctuation errors our writer has made.

suddenly i was feeling very sad an alone but i didn’t know why i stared

into the empty bowl but the gold fish just bobbed on the surfas in a

lyfeless way the wate was very clean and sparklin jeremy was dead and

i had to dispose of his body should i bury him in the garden or should i

flush him down the toilet as i thought about it time passed more quickly

than i realised it was now two late too go into the garden i walked up

the stares to the toilet carryin the heavy bowl i struggld to tip the water

into the toilet bowl i didnt fink about what would happen next and as I

tryed to flush the water rows up and poured out onto the floor Jeremy

slide across the tiles toward the door i saw a fluffy pow reach out from

the doorway jeremy was gone

George Crum- Accidental Inventor of the Crisp!

One day, a customer sent back his place of potatoes many times asking for them to be fried more and thinner. Crum lost his temper, sliced the potatoes insanely thin and fried them until they were hard as rock. To the chef’s surprise, the customer loved them and wanted more!

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Why did I tell you this?It is important to realise that people make mistakes and

they can be corrected to make something better through editing and experimenting. Do not be afraid to change your

work after you have written it –it will make it better!

We are now going to spend some time editing the writing from the page before – I think we all agree it is pretty poor!

1. Highlight any words that you think could be improved – put them into the table on the next page and use a thesaurus to find synonyms to replace them.

2. Use one colour to highlight two different sentences – you are going to change these sentences into complex sentences.

3. Use another colour to highlight two different sentences – you are going to change these sentences into – ly, - ed, -ing sentence starters.

4. Highlight one sentence to change into a simile5. Highlight one sentence to change into a metaphor6. Highlight one sentence to change into personification7. Can you add in any extra information that you think the writer

has missed?

Capital LettersCapital letters are needed for the first letter of a sentence and for proper nouns (names.) This includes the names of people, places, days and months, special days, books and films.

Capital letters are also needed when you refer to yourself as ‘I’; never use a small ‘I’ no matter where it appears in the sentence.

Circle the missing capital letters in the following paragraph.

I haven’t seen my friend, sarah, since december last year. Then last week I bumped into her in tesco. we arranged to meet outside primark and then go for a coffee. I waited there for a while before i tried to phone her. I called her three times but she did not answer. we had agreed to meet each other on thursday at four o’clock. It was only then I realised that I had made a mistake. I’d arrived on the wrong day! It was wednesday today.

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Thesaurus skills needed

Melancholy, depressed, miserable, gloomy, cheerlessSad

Happy

Nice

Excited

Frightened

Excellent

Spelling Test 1

You are expected to get at least 17/ 20 correct each time. If you do not manage this, you will to re-take the test at another time

Read Write Cover and write

Does not

Doesn’t

Actually

Although

Argument

Audible

Audience

Autumn

Beautiful

Beginning

Believe

Beneath

Conclusion

Conscience

Consequence

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Commonly misspelt words

Do you know what all these words mean?

If there are any words on your spelling list that you don’t understand, then write them underneath with a definition.

Word Definition

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AdverbHow can we tell what an adverb is?

Adverbs can modify (change) a verb, an adjective, a whole clause or another adverb. By using them it

adds more detail and therefore more marks to our writing.

The way I like to remember what an adverb is, is by breaking the word down. Ad (you are adding something) to the verb (or adjective).

Here are some examples:

Gregory soon started snoring loudly.The adverbs modify the verbs started and snoring.

The hockey match was really exciting!The adverb modifies the verb exciting.

We don’t get to play on the Xbox very often.The adverb modifies the adverb.

Fortunately, it didn’t rain.The adverb modifies the whole main clause.

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Task!You now have two tasks to complete

1. Underline the adverb and explain what the adverb is modifying – like I have shown above.

2. Read the adverb word bank and add in an extra one for each letter of the alphabet.

Alphabet adverb bank

Arrogantly Impatiently Quaintly

Blindly Joyfully Reluctantly

Clumsily Keenly Silently

Decently Loosely Thoroughly

Emotionally Mechanically Unexpectedly

Famously Nightly Viciously

Graciously Obviously Widely

Habitually Painlessly Yearly

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Spelling Test 2You are expected to get at least 17/ 20 correct each time. If you do not manage this, you will to re-take the test at another time.

Read Write Cover and writeContinuous

Creation

Definite

Embarrass

Explanation

Furthermore

Imaginary

Improvise

Moreover

Outrageous

Parallel

Participation

Physical

Proportion

Proposition

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Commonly misspelt words

Do you know what all these words mean?

If there are any words on your spelling list that you don’t understand, then write them underneath with a definition.

Word Definition

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Spelling Test 3

You are expected to get at least 17/ 20 correct each time. If you do not manage this, you will to re-take the test at another time

Read Write Cover and write

Queue

Reaction

Reference

Saturday

Separate

Sequence

Sincerely

Straight

Strategy

Technique

Unfortunately

Wednesday

Threw

Through

Conjunction

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Commonly misspelt words

Do you know what all these words mean?

If there are any words on your spelling list that you don’t understand, then write them underneath with a definition.

Word Definition

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Singular and

plurals

When writing, it is very important to make sure we are using singular and plural nouns or our work

won’t make sense.Unfortunately, the rules for making a singular word into a plural work is not as easy as just adding an ‘s’ to the end,

there are a few rules to look out for:

Some rules for you

1. The general rule is just add on an ‘s’ (but) Cat – cats2. Sometimes you need to add on an es Boss – bosses3. Change the y to an ‘i’ and an ‘es’ Lorry – Lorries4. Words that end in an ‘ey’ add on an ‘s’ Monkey-

Monkeys5. Change an ‘f’ to a ‘v’ and add ‘es’ Leaf – leaves

1 – 4 are called regular plurals

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5 - is called a near-regular plural

There are, of course, exceptions to all these rules.

Exceptions to the rules

In most cases, there is an exception to a rule. For example, this pear is green and it is a fruit, but it is not the same shape or type of fruit; it abides by

different rules to the

apples.

Words are the same. Some words have different rules to our five basic ones when changing from a singular to a plural.

These are called irregular plurals.Singular Plural Language techniqueChildSheepMouse

People

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Task: change these commonly used words from single to plural form, or the other way around.

FeetMan

WomenPenny

Teeth

What is a homophone?

Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings. If we get these words wrong it can create a completely different meaning to our writing and understanding.

The basics and most frequent:

There Use there when referring to a place, whether concrete (“over there

by the building”) or more abstract (“it must be difficult to live there”)

Also use there with the verb “be” (is, am, are, was, were) to indicate the existence of something, or to mention something for the first time.

If you wrote there, will the sentence still make sense if you replace it with here? If so, you’re using it correctly.

They’re

A combination of they and are where you add an apostrophe to replace the letter ‘a’ in are.If you used they’re, will the sentence still make sense if you replace it with they are? If so, you are using it correctly.

TheirWhen you are talking about something that someone owns:If you choose, their, will the sentence still make sense if you replace with our? If so, you’ve chosen the correct word.

Fill in the blanks using the their/ they’re/ there

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1. ________ going to the funfair but ______ not sure what rides to go on.

2. ________ house was beautiful but ________ incredibly rude.

3. She couldn’t collect her boots from the cupboard because _______ was a spider in ________.

Here Use here when referring to a place, whether concrete (“over

here by the building”) or more abstract (“it must be difficult to live here”)

Also use here with the verb “be” (is, am, are, was, were) to indicate the existence of something, or to mention something for the first time.

If you wrote here, will the sentence still make sense if you replace it with there? If so, you’re using it correctly.

HearA combination of they and are where you add an apostrophe to replace the letter ‘a’ in are.If you used they’re, will the sentence still make sense if you replace it with they are? If so, you are using it correctly.

Homophones1. You need to wait _______patiently until the bus comes2. Can you _______the bells in the distance3. “What is this over _______?”

To Use to as a proposition before a noun or as an

infinitive before a verb.

Too Use too as a synonym for also or to indicate

excessiveness (a lot of something!)Two Simply the number after one.

4. I feel ancient, I can barely ________ myself think.

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1. I ate ____ much cake and now I think I am going ___ explode.

2. When I opened my Skittles, I only had _____ red ones. I am going ___ complain.

3. This time he has gone ____ far.4. Atticus talks _____ much, I need him to understand

that I only have _____ minutes until my curfew runs out.

HomophonesWhere

Where is one of our 5 Ws for asking questions Like there and here, it is also a place

Wear Used when referring to an item that you, or somebody else have on their body.

We’re The same as you’re, a mixture of ‘we’ and ‘are’If you can replace it with we are, you have the right one!

Were The past tense of was.

1. “________ are we going? Is it some _______ fun?” Lucy squealed.

2. _________ going to go crazy if we sit here any longer.3. I thought I was going to ________ a woolly hat but by

the time I was ready it was sunny outside.

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4. They ______ going to the gym but then they passed the ice-cream parlour, ______ they spent the next hour.

5. ________ going to have to resort to plan B _________ we use the dancing crocodile instead of the gymnastic elephant.

Circle the correct

homophone in each sentence.

1. I’m not aloud/allowed to go to the cinema. 2. I can’t hear/here what you’re saying. 3. “Don’t stair/stare!” she said, tapping my leg. 4. Jack found a bean/been in his pocket. 5. Write/right your name at the top of your page. 6. “I would never steel/steal from you,” she sobbed. 7. He put the whole/hole cake in his mouth. 8. She’s got for/four brothers. 9. He had been ill for a while so he was very week/weak.

Circle the correct homophones in each

sentence. (2 homophones per sentence)

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1. Don’t break/brake it or yew/you will be sorry.

2. From hour/our room we could see/sea the fairground.

3. Write/right it in your book if you no/know the answer.

4. I can’t wait to meat/meet her. She sounds great/grate.

5. I went to/too the park with her on Saturday to/too. She

threw/through her bag across the room.

Spelling Test 4

You are expected to get at least 17/ 20 correct each time. If you do not manage this, you will to re-take the test at another time

Read Write Cover and write

Judgement

Knowledge

Leisure

Library

Lightning

Maintenance

Manoeuvre

Memento

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Commonly misspelt words

Millennium Miniature

Mischievous

Noticeable

Occasion

Occasionally

Occur

Apostrophes for omissionWhen people speak, they often shorten words.

Apostrophes are used to show where letters have been missed out (omitted.)

For example, I am = I’m don’t = do not

Full form (without apostrophes)

Short form (with apostrophes)

I willThere is She willI amI hadHe is

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Can notYou are They areWould not

Fill in the table below adding apostrophes to show missing letters.

Add in the missing apostrophes in the following sentences

1. You cant go out now. Its far too late. Youd

better go tomorrow instead.

2. Why are you so slow? I wont let you come

again if you dont hurry up.

3. Shes not coming to the cinema because she

doesnt like scary films.

4. I couldnt go on holiday because I didnt

have a passport.

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Task: With a green pen, go through the written work below and correct it using our marking scheme. Look out for the incorrect use

of homophones and apostrophes.Don’t forget the rules you have learnt!

When my workdays over, and I have closed my notebook, hidden my pen and cut hole’s in my diary so it cant be found, I often like to spend the evening in conversation with my few surviving friend’s. Sometime’s we discuss literature. Sometime’s we discuss the people who are trying to destroy us, and if theres any hope of escaping from them. And sometime’s we discuss frightening and troubling animal’s, this topic always lead’s to much disagreement over which part of a frightening and troublesome. Some say the teeth of the beast, because the teeth are used for eating children and they’re parent’s and nawing on there bones. Some say the claw’s of the beast, because claws are used for ripping things to shred’s. I always’s insist that the most frightening part of any beast is it’s belly, for the simple reason that if you are seeing the belly of the beast it mean’s you have already seen the teeth and claw’s and now you are trapped and theres no hope for you. For this reason, the phrase “in the belly of the beast” means you are not safe and its not an expression one should look forward to using.Set this writer a target to move forward with their work. What

do they need to improve?

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________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Spelling Test 5

You are expected to get at least 17/ 20 correct each time. If you do not manage this, you will to re-take the test at another time

Read Write Cover and write

Course

Coarse

Quiet

Quite

Sites

Sights

Sauce

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Commonly misspelt words

Task: Complete the sentences below using the correct word:

Don’t or doesn’t

Source

Threw

Through

Irrelevant

Irrelevance

Anthology

Apostrophe

Atmosphere

Don’t or Doesn’t ?

This seems simple enough but, we often

put the wrong word into our writing, which means

it is grammatically incorrect.When in doubt, use the words

without an apostrophe, this wayyou will make sure it makes sense.

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When we use don’t or doesn’t, we use an apostrophe to replace the letter ‘o’. Without the apostrophe, we have two separate words:

Do notDoes not

1. The cat ____________ want to go out in the rain.2. __________ step in the mud and then come in the

house with your trainers on.3. It ____________ matter if you ___________ get the

right answer, as long as you try.4. Life is short, __________ let it pass you by.5. I __________ want to get up early in the morning.6. I don’t believe that Romeo is cruel as he __________

intentionally fall in love with Juliet.7. Curley’s wife __________deserve to be called names.

Questions, statementsand exclamations

Punctuation is very important as it is used to help the reader to understand how a sentence is being said. As you know, there are various punctuation marks. Today we are only looking at three;

question marks, full stops and exclamation marks.

Questions – If you’re asking a question a question mark is needed at the end of a sentence. (e.g. - Why were you late?)

Statement sentences – They state a fact or they are simple sentences which

require no emphasis. Statement sentences always end with a full stop (e.g. I am in school).

Exclamation sentences – These sentences are emphasising a statement so they need an exclamation mark at the end. (Get out!)

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? .!

Decide if the sentences below are questions, statements or exclamations. Remember to add the correct punctuation mark to the end of the

sentence

1. Why are you being so stubborn2. The girl asked if she could turn her phone off3. Be quiet4. I know a man who keeps an alligator in his shed5. Who did she go on holiday with6. Aaron wondered when Katie would arrive7. Be careful, it’s hot8. Can you tell the time

Commas for listingCommas are used to separate words or phrases in a list.

For example, I like walking, running and playing football. A good way to test if the comma is in the right place is by

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Task.Ensure all your books follow these rules.

Check the books in your bag. Now!

replacing the comma with and or ‘or’. If the sentence doesn’t make sense with and or ‘or’, don’t add the comma!

Look at the sentences below and add commas where they are needed.

1. My favourite programmes are Eastenders Hollyoaks and Coronation Street.2. I bought a new bag pencil case and pens for school.3. My grandmother loves flowers birds and gardening. 4. Her basket was filled with fruit vegetables and bottles of water. 5. I’m looking forward to my birthday Halloween and Christmas.6. He was scared of snakes spiders and rats.7. Lucy Hannah and Sasha were ready to leave.8. David always described himself as tall dark and handsome. 9. She had lots of cards flowers and chocolates for her birthday. 10. I have three best friends Ieuan Evan and Ryan.

Tenses You can write in three different tenses: past, present and future. We use the past tense to talk about things that have happened (e.g. She baked a cake). We use the present tense to talk about things that are happening right now (e.g. She is baking a cake). Finally, we use the future tense to talk about things that are going to happen (e.g. She will bake a cake).

Fill in the blank spaces in the table using the correct tense.

Past Present FutureI ate a whole chicken in Nando’s.

I will eat a whole chicken in Nando’s.

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She danced like a professional.

She dances like a professional.

She will be in school on Tuesday.

The gate creaks in the wind.

They ate lunch very quickly.

They are eating lunch very quickly.

I am very hungry. I will be very hungry.

We went shopping. We will go shopping.

James played in the band.

James will be playing in the band.

25 CommonlyMisspelt words

1. Accommodation2. Analysis3. Argument4. Beautiful5. Beginning6. Believe7. Business8. Definitely9. Development10. Disappearance

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11. Disappoint12. Embarrassment13. Environment14. Fulfil15. Happened16. Interesting17. Necessary18. Possession19. Preparation20. Receive21. Separate22. Sincerely23. Skilful24. Surprise25. Tomorrow

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