Jj is for Jottings 73. Prince William on Punctuation and Social Media.
Prince William addressed a group of female students at a London school on the issue of cyberbullying. He talked about the stress of trying to live up to all the faked “perfection” seen online, and he urged students to put down their devices, in order to improve mental health. He said that they need to balance their time with other activities, especially outside, and not to be on a screen all day because “it takes you into a different world.”
Prince William also made the point about how often feelings can be hurt be text messages and social media, saying: “Unless you punctuate it correctly — I’m not the best at punctuation and I’m not the grammar police, either — you can read it in 100 different ways.” He also went on to talk about the importance of emotional intelligence and sharing feelings, but that is not my focus today.
Punctuation – many people ignore it and consider it of no importance, but that is absolutely untrue. A message can be completely changed by those little marks on the page, even without changing the words themselves. Here are a couple of examples:
“Let’s eat, Grandma.”
With the comma, these words indicate that the speaker is talking to their grandma and suggesting that they eat dinner. Watch what happens when you remove the comma:
“Let’s eat Grandma.”
Without the comma, the speaker is suggesting that they eat their grandma!
Another example:
“Please replace the chair’s.” The chair’s what?
Clearly, poor punctuation can interfere with the meaning of the message, and for people who punctuate correctly, each punctuation error is a stumbling block to fluent reading, since one must re-read parts to check what is really meant. In text messages and on social media, the writer is not present for you to check what was really meant; in conversation you can clarify meanings and sort out misunderstandings on the spot.
There is much more I could say about punctuation. I’m sure it will work its way into posts at some point!
Source of photo: World Bank Photo Collection.
Jj is for Jottings 72. Single Words Versus Connected Speech.
Following on from the discussion about the end of a word not always really being the end (here), we find that, as a result of running our words together to get a smooth flow which is easier for the listener to follow, we can end up with strings of consonants together, as in, “He mends trucks.” Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 71. 4 Signs of Weak Spellers.
This is just a quick post a week after the last one, so I can get back into sync with my working days.
The 4 tell-tale symptoms of weak spellers are: Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 70. The End of a Word is Not Always the End.
In traditional tests of articulation (speech sounds) and when we are sounding out words in reading, we think very much in terms of sounds at the beginning, in the middle and on the end of a word. In the case of early stage reading and spelling using 3-sound words, we are asking, “What sound can you hear at the beginning of the word?” “What sound can you hear at the end of the word? “What sound can you hear in the middle of the word?” Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 67. Reading Comprehension – Is Your Child Barking at Print?
When your child is reading to you, are you sure they (I’m using “they” to cover both boys and girls) are actually understanding what they are reading, or are they just barking at print? i.e. Reading the words correctly but not actually decoding them, so they really have no idea what they are reading. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 66. 7 Tips for Reluctant Readers.
Some early readers find large blocks of print rather daunting and are therefore reluctant to read. Here are some tips for getting around this: Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 65. What Is Synthetic Phonics?
We’re just taking a break from the series on How to Raise a Reader – we’ll finish it next time.
Synthetic phonics means “building words from individual sounds”. For example, even if you had never seen it before, you could spell the word “step” Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 63. Raising a Reader Part 3: Emerging Readers.
Continuing from the two previous articles
https://educatingalpacas.com/raising-a-reader-part-1-the-baby/ and https://educatingalpacas.com/raising-a-reader-part-2-toddlers/,
this next stage is the magical time when your child starts to take an interest in letters and words and begins to make out words for himself, in books or real life such as street signs. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 58. More Reading to Dogs.
The other reason for children reading to dogs (see previous article https://educatingalpacas.com/reading-to-dogs/) was intended to benefit the dogs, but turns out to be a two-way street, as you will see. The Humane Society of Missouri trains children aged 5-15 years to sit in front of shelter runs Continue reading