[25 mins]

In May 2010 some of the THRASS UK team visited Klipspruit Combined School in the Kwena Basin, Mpumalanga. The school is one of several local farm schools that have received sponsorship as part of the THRASS Absa TalkTogether Project. Three classes occupy what was previously the school hall and stage, so space is at a premium. We see a lesson with a Grade 7 class, and the children use the THRASS programme to sound out, read and spell words. They also use their THRASS skills to analyse words such as ‘transport’ and to decide how many sounds (phonemes) are in the words and which letter(s) represent each sound. They are asked to use the correct terminology such as a graph (one-letter spelling choice), digraph, (two-letter spelling choice), trigraph (three-letter spelling choice), and even a quadgraph (four-letter spelling choice). When they analyse the word ‘eighteen’, they realise that the ‘e’ ‘i’ ‘g’ ‘h’ is a quadgraph, where four letters make one sound. The ‘e’ ‘i’ ‘g’ ‘h’ is also a Grapheme Catch-All (one of the spelling choices that does not appear on the THRASS chart) and it is represented on the chart by an asterisk. We see the children completing a worksheet in small groups and they practise their analysis skills on some new words. When they analyse the word ‘communicate’ they also come across the ‘a-e’ grapheme, which they identify correctly as a split digraph, as in the keyword ‘tape’. The teacher explains that she likes using THRASS because it helps her to teach the children that letters have different jobs to do in different words, such as the ‘c’ in cat and the ‘c’ in city. She says that learning about the sounds of English using THRASS has not only helped the children to read English, but it has also helped them with their own language, as some of the sounds are the same.
 

 

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THRASS in Kwena

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THRASS in Kwena

OTHER KWENA BASIN
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The THRASS Synthetic Phonics Programme - A Truly Inspirational Resource

THRASS GOES LIVE!
Mpumalanga to Milton Keynes
13 May: Team Building
14 May: Sharing the Dreams
15 May: Umthombopholile
16 May: Impala
17 May: Phakama School
18 May: Demonstration Lesson 
23 May: Keynote Address (NUE)
05 June: UK Team Day 1
06 June: UK Team Day 2
07 June: UK Team Day 3
08 June: Visit to Schools
09 June: The THRASS SMART Project
19 June: UK Schools Tour - Hollywood
21 June: UK Schools Tour - Conwy
25 June: UK Schools Tour - Cardiff
28 June: UK Schools Tour - Oxley Park

The Highlights of our Journey