Why a Lexathon?
By Mrs Broadis, Head of English
Take ‘Lexis’ from the Greek, meaning word, and the suffix ‘athon’, meaning an event marked by length or endurance, and what do we get? A Lexathon! The biennial Edge Grove Lexathon took place this week, and whilst, on the surface it is an entertaining game show styled House event, it is also an academic foray into our Lexicon – the spelling of words, their meaning, and the idiomatic phrases that characterise the English language.
Through rounds in forms of spelling and puzzling, the wordsmiths in our community are selected to represent each House and to tackle a series of vocabulary-related questions under high pressure.
First comes the spelling round, where in pairs, pupils have to write a series of demanding words. The first ones are drawn from the Government’s statutory lists, and the rest are those high-order academic words we expect children here at Edge Grove to assimilate from their learning across the curriculum.
In the Junior Department, Year 1 and 2 pupils have to identify rhyming words, proving that they understand the concept of rhyme, and being able to ‘hear’ in their own minds the sounds of words inspired by an image. This skill of being able to sound out words internally is required to become a good writer – whether it’s poetry where rhyme may be needed, or in the choice of words in imaginative work to contribute to sentence style and tone.
After tackling a round of anagrams, which once again test spelling, children have a series of homophones to identify. Understanding that words can sound the same, but be spelled differently is a key skill in becoming a secure speller.
Year 3 and 4 tackle an Idiom round – which is not a piece of cake! The English language is filled with those idiomatic phrases which have a completely different meaning from their literal sense. A fantastic book for understanding idioms, which I recommend and which is vital for understanding English, is ‘Why Do We Say That?’ by Scott Matthews, which Reuben in Year 7 introduced me to some years ago.
Year 5 and 6 pupils face a more challenging homophone round which not only requires them to recognise the word, but involves identifying the variations in spelling.
However, Year 7 and 8 have to identify whether homographs – those words that are spelled the same but mean different things – are pronounced in the same way or differently.
Here the syllables of the word ‘present’ are stressed differently depending on whether the word is the noun, meaning gift, or the verb meaning to bring something before an audience.
The final round involves all finalists and teams have to identify the collective noun from an image. Collective nouns are always featured in online Future School exams, and knowing that camels cross the desert in a ‘caravan’ is considered general knowledge.
Collaboration, teamwork, friendly competition and a love of learning characterise this event which is unique to Edge Grove. The Lexathon has words and their meaning at its heart, and it was delightful to see all pupils engage so enthusiastically in the Finals which were projected onto hall screens so the whole community could enjoy the challenges presented by the English language. Congratulations to Gills!