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Original poster

Pardon my dimness, but infant teachers, what is..................

92 replies

Aero · 01/02/2006 19:49

........a medial phoneme?

Does it simply mean middle letter, or is a secret code that I have never heard of before, but feel I should have?

Dd has received a sheet of words and been asked to find words with the 'medial phoneme' 'o' or 'e', but there are no words on the sheet with those as middle letters which is why I ask. I assume then that she is meant to think of these words herself.

Also, is it the latest craze to try and teach infants who have not yet mastered their letters properly to try and do 'fancy' joined up writing. Dd is totally confused and frustrated with all this and has been in tears tonight because she finds it too difficult. She's 5.5 and in year one and I feel there is just far too much pressure to learn all this. Also, to learn spellings and be expected to write them down when she still gets her letters mixed up. She can spell the words aloud, but gets them marked wrong when she's clearly just written certain letters back to front! This just upsets her as she knows she spelt the word right iyswim.
Can you tell I'm a frustrated parent?!!

I put this in chat, then realise this might be a better place for it.

OP posts:
lockets · 01/02/2006 20:44

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Original poster
Aero · 01/02/2006 20:46

lol - you did foxy - I started it in 'chat', then though it would be better placed here.

I also want to know how phoneme is pronounced. Is it fo-nemm, fon-emm, fon-emm-ee, fo-nem-ee. I don't wish to appear as under-educated (thick) as I clearly am on Monday evening!

OP posts:
snowleopard · 01/02/2006 20:47

OK, but when we tell a small child a letter makes a sound, if we say it makes a sound and not a "phoneme" the child knows what we mean - they don't think we are talking about any old sound, like a train rumbling or a bell ringing! What these new methods seem to forget is that words, language and speech are around children all the time and they can grasp them. It is not some new world of knowledge that has to be taught like graduate-level physics. And if it is taught that way, that in itself will not solve any problems or make reading and writing easier for any child - it just introduces a new set of terms when we already have a set!

What I really object to about this is they way it is pretending to be some kind of better, more rigorous approach when it is nothing of the sort. It can't be if it is just confusing and upsetting 5-year-olds and their parents.

snowleopard · 01/02/2006 20:48

Pronounced phone - eem.

Original poster
Aero · 01/02/2006 20:49

Incidently, the teacher is about ten, well, maybe 23 or 24, but the term has been used in her ELS contact book which is done by the TA. Both are very nice and I'm sure not 'showing off' as such, but it all seems so un-necessary and I do believe the NC is wrong in many ways.

OP posts:
kate100 · 01/02/2006 20:51

I think the teacher is being exceptionally pretentious, what's the point of sending homework if the parents can't help with it? I'm sure she wouldn't understand the technical jargon in any other job! Silly woman. Anyway, A 'phoneme' is a unit of sound, like 'a' or 'oo', not just the sound of the letter, so in cat the medial phoneme would be 'a' but in 'boot the medial phoneme would be 'oo'. I'm a primary teacher and I'm embarrassed that another teacher would put that term into homework. HTH.

lockets · 01/02/2006 20:51

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Original poster
Aero · 01/02/2006 20:53

Lockets, DS1 is now in year 3 and I've only just seen the term tonight. Plain English would be a lot easier for parents to understand and then they be more able to help their children.

OP posts:
Original poster
Aero · 01/02/2006 20:58

Thanks robinpud for posting on the original thread in 'chat' - won't bump it as it would confuse me even more - lol, but that was helpful information. They are trying to help dd and boost her confidence, but in their efforts to help, they are IMO defeating the purpose and her confidence over the last few days/weeks has dipped tremendously.

OP posts:
snowleopard · 01/02/2006 21:01

It's like saying "Oh children are failing to learn to walk, so let's sit them in a room and make them identify the gastrocnemius muscle".

And now I shall parp myself, so toodle pip.

lockets · 01/02/2006 21:02

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Original poster
Aero · 01/02/2006 21:14

Thanks lockets. Incidently, I don't think she is being pretentious at all. The whole reason my brother left before finishing his teaching degree was that he would in no way be free to teach in his own style which would have involved using his own common sense and gumption.

lol @ gastrocnemius muscle SL.

OP posts:
ladymuck · 01/02/2006 21:44

Wow, as an onlooker this is scarey. I'm afraid it makes me feel that I made the right choice in going private (to try and escape from the centrally imposed policies). I know its a cop-out and very selfish but I'm not sure how I would react to being given a worksheet on medial phonemes.

Original poster
Aero · 01/02/2006 22:09

Not a worksheet on 'medial phonemes' LM, but a word sheet for her to practise certain words.In the ELS contact book, however, the TA implied that dd should look for words with the 'mp' 'o' and 'e', of which there were none on the sheet. Made no sense to me whatsoever, therefore making me feel dim, when I consider myself to be reasonably intelligent. (Some may question that statement )!

OP posts:
Moomin · 01/02/2006 22:29

ok sorry i stand corrected about the term being used in the nls.....

BUT there are a LOAD of other such terms used throughout the ks3 (and thus i assume the ks2) curriculum but it is up to the teacher whether they use the term itself or whether they give the plain english meaning and teach through that. Common sense would tell you that you truely do not need to use terms like this at this stage of a child's learning. If the child knows HOW to use a word in a context then they have learned about it. If the child learns how to repeat a term but doesn't remember what it means or how it is used then it is a pointless exercise.

ladymuck · 01/02/2006 23:23

Dare I ask what an ELS is?

SorenLorensen · 01/02/2006 23:32

Can you put words like pooh, and doofus, and noodlehead, and hope she gets the message?

Absolute insanity to give a 5 year old something like this for homework.

bobbybobbobbingalong · 01/02/2006 23:39

Teachers need to go back and remember what they knew before they started teacher training college, and remember that's what parents know.

I have a Masters in music, but when I work with 4 year olds I use both the plain English and the Italian terms until both child and parent know them well. Then the children love to use them because they sound interesting.

I think homework at 5 is daft too, why can't they just read a book, or have book read to them.

Original poster
Aero · 02/02/2006 10:27

ELS is Early Literacy Support LM. Dd was offered it because I was worried that she wasn't picking up reading as well as I would have expected her to. Her concentration spans are short and she became distracted very quickly. The ELS is to help her confidence really and on the whole it's pretty easy stuff, but 'silly' terms seem un-necessary in my eyes as they don't help me to help her iyswim.

pmsl @ pooh, doofus and noodlehead SL - wonder if that would provoke a reaction! Not brave enough to try it though, but I will certainly be voicing my concerns next week.

Reading was pretty much all ds1 was expected to do in year 1 bbba - I have no idea why it's all changed, and that's just in two years - how on earth do they expect parents keep up?!

OP posts:
Hallgerda · 02/02/2006 11:24

A classic from DS3's year 1 teacher (written in his exercise book)

"Well done [Hallgerda's DS3], you have learnt to use temporal connectives".

blueshoes · 02/02/2006 12:49

This teacher needs to have extra lessons in plain English. Jargon should be used sparingly and if used, should be explained the first time it is used. An example would be very helpful.

I am writing as a lawyer !

Original poster
Aero · 02/02/2006 14:09

Temporal connectives???? Good grief - what the heck is that?

OP posts:
popsycalindisguise · 02/02/2006 14:13

time connective....
until, when, then etc

Original poster
Aero · 02/02/2006 14:18

A-ha - cheers popsy.

OP posts:
popsycalindisguise · 02/02/2006 14:18

there are four types of connective don't you know

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