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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Primary education

I wish they'd taught me this when I was at school. Then I wouldn't feel so stupid now!

20 replies

trumpetgirl · 22/12/2008 00:01

dd is in year 1 and while she was reading her reading book last week this conversation made me giggle, so I thought I'd share...

dd: How do you say that word?

me: Well, what's this on the end? (pointing at the letter "e" and expecting dd to realise it's a "magic e")

dd: Oh, is it a split diagraph?

me: Erm... I don't know... Hang on...
(runs to laptop and googles frantically)
Yes, it is. Well done!

I'm quite worried that everyone else in the world does in fact know what a split diagraph is, and that I'm just being insanely stupid... but she's only 6!

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robinpud · 22/12/2008 00:07

I'm a teacher and found out about them relatively recently in the great scheme of things.
I did get taught 7 part sentence analysis but the split digraph is a relatively recent invention

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coppertop · 22/12/2008 00:09

I have no idea what a split diagraph is.

It sounds painful though.

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juicyjolly · 22/12/2008 00:11

Why the hell do they need to call it a split diagraph?
What is it called that for?

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trumpetgirl · 22/12/2008 00:18

Split diagraph is just the "magic e" idea where you have the "e" at the end of the word that makes a vowel in the middle sound different to the phonetic alphabet sounds they were tought originally.
Not sure that made sense

I have learnt many strange words in the past year including "phoneme" and "grapheme". I still cannot remember which one is which and I don't bloody care anymore! dd knows all about them though, and makes me feel like an idiot!

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kid · 22/12/2008 00:26

here you go

That explains things. I'm off to read it myself now!

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PeachyBidsYouNadoligLlawen · 22/12/2008 00:32

well i didnt know

so I asked ds1 (9) and he came up with somesuch about sunflowers and roses that need counting so I take it he didnt either LOL!

But the link explains it well

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trumpetgirl · 22/12/2008 00:37

Thanks kid.

I'd forgotton about mnemonics. There was an amazing one for the "ffff" sound. You had to push your hands slowly together as if "deflating an inflatable fish"

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seeker · 22/12/2008 06:41

But why not just call it magic e? They are 5 years old!

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kid · 22/12/2008 10:16

I know the 'ffff' sound of the deflating fish. Thats part of the jolly phonics. There is also a 'h' puffing on your hand for the H.
'a,a,a,a,a' for ants running up your arm for A.

Problem is, my DC aren't being taught that way now and just look at me as if I am mad if I start doing these things to help them read a word!

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trumpetgirl · 22/12/2008 23:30

Ah, yes. Loved the Jolly Phonics. I took the book in to show my uni friends and we started spelling things to each other with actions! It also turns out that not one of us writes our letters correctly!

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islandofsodor · 23/12/2008 00:16

The thing is that is doesn't just refer to the letter e. Any two vowels can be split diagraphs.

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Madsometimes · 23/12/2008 11:30

Just asked my 5 year old what a split diagraph is. She doesn't know. However, she does know what a magic e is

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CaptainKarvol · 23/12/2008 11:37

wow, I don't know what any of those things are.

I went to primary school in the 70's. We did music, drama and lots of sticking.

We did not do grammer, paragraphs or times-tables.

Last time it came back to bite me on the bum was when I sat the civil service entrance exams about (omg) 18 years ago.

Does everyone else know all this stuff?

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Smithagain · 23/12/2008 16:21

I felt the same when DD1 came home from Reception and announced that she wanted to "do some tesselating".

And now in Year 2 she is telling me all about Samuel Pepys. "I've read his diary, you know, mummy"

And all this at a decidedly less-than-outstanding state primary. I can't keep up!

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Coldtits · 23/12/2008 16:23

It sounds like a contraceptive failure.

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Coldtits · 23/12/2008 16:24

Ds1 doesn't know what a split diagraph is.

He knows what magic E is, because I told him last year.

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Jux · 23/12/2008 16:29

I'd never heard of it and I was in the equivalent of year 1, um, 45 years ago when children were taught PROPERLY. Because my dad was into phonetics and the nitty-gritty bits of language, I could work out what a split digraph was, but I'd never even heard of a magic e.

Life is more fun in school these days.

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katalex · 23/12/2008 17:29

I've never heard of a split diagraph and I have a feeling I'm going to be made to feel stupid when dd starts school next year. My 7 year old nephew had to explain what a time connective was recently when he was I was asking him about his spellings.

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harpomarx · 23/12/2008 18:08

if it makes you feel better, trumpetgirl, I have an MA in Linguistics and have never heard of a 'split diagraph'. Sounds made-up to me

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mrz · 24/12/2008 07:59

harpomarx it would be in the orthography and collation lecture... I'm really not sure why we are expected to introduce such terms to very young children do they really need to know what it is called to be able to write it?

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