Cardiff Council’s literacy team has launched a new competition that will have entrants dancing to a new tune.
Following the success of the literacy crimes competition earlier this year which asked children and young people to spot examples of poor spelling and grammar in signs, advertisements and notices at locations around the city, a new challenge has been set to spot mistakes in song lyrics.
Offenders in the music industry beware, as students at Key Stages 2, 3 and 4 are now on the look out for bad grammar or the wrong choice of words, verbs and tenses in songs. For example, there is a double negative used in the line ‘I can’t light no more of your darkness’ in Elton John’s ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’ and ‘Where’s them girls at?’ by David Guetta featuring Nicki Minaj and Flo Rida should be, ‘Where are those girls?’
Examples of lyrical crimes should be sent to [email protected] with name of the artist and song, the ‘criminal’ lyric and how the ‘crime’ should be put right. Entrants must include their name, school and year group in the e-mail.
All competition participants will be rewarded with tickets to a special, invite-only comedy event in the city with a line up of well-known Welsh comedians.
The competition is the latest initiative by the Council’s Education Service to raise literacy standards and promote good reading and writing among children and young people.
The Reading Power campaign is aimed at tackling the issue of poor literacy and was developed to help parents and carers understand the importance of good reading and writing skills to help children succeed in the future.
A Reading Power website is available at www.cardiff.gov.uk/readingpower to provide parents with information on how they can help their children, containing tips and advice as well as recommending English and Welsh books and links to other websites that promote reading as an enjoyable pastime as well as an essential skill.
Executive Member for Education and Lifelong Learning, Cllr Freda Salway, said: “Improving the literacy levels of children and young people across the city is a high priority for Cardiff Council, and since the launch of our literacy strategy, there has been a marked increase in the number of functionally literate children leaving primary education and going on to high school. We are making progress, and want to keep up the good work.
“The literacy team works hard to engage children and young people, and to communicate the message that reading is fun. This new competition is yet another great idea to get young people thinking and improving their literacy skills while doing something they enjoy – listening to music.”
