Here are some examples of the progress of our dictations over one quarter. I started these about half way through the quarter, after we had been writing a little bit. Dictation #1 His name is Dan. He is ten. Her name is Pam. She is two. Dictation #2 His name is Sam. He is from Canada. Her name is Jan. She is from Canada too. Dictation #3 Tom lives in Kent. Kim lives in Kent too. They both live in Kent. They are from Ohio. Dictation #4 Jim lives in Auburn. He is twenty. He is from Mexico. His brother lives in Kent. His name is Tim. They are twins. Dictation #5 Her name is Pat. She lives in Tacoma. She is nineteen. She is from China. She has one sister. Her name is Meg. Dictation#6 (I ask these questions they write the response) What s your name? Where are you from? Where do you live? What s the date? When is your birthday? Dictation #7 (Messenger/Scribe) Catherine has one son. His name is Leo. He is eight years old. Catherine and her family live in Seattle. Catherine also has a husband, a dog, two cats, and a fish. Gr e e n R ive r C om m u n it y C ol l e g e ES OL P r og r a m L e ve l 1 Page 1
Dictation # 8 (Messenger/Scribe) Thanksgiving is on the 4 th Thursday of November. This year, it is on November 23 rd. Thanksgiving is a national holiday. The post office is closed. Banks are closed. Stores are closed. Schools are closed. Americans have a big dinner with family and friends. Dictation #9 Stan is a tall man. He has a wife. Her name is Linda. They have two children, a son and a daughter. The boy s name is Dan. He is eight. The girl s name is Pam. She is four. Dictation #10 (They write answers) What s your name? Where are you from? Where do you live? When s your birthday? What s your phone number? What s your address? What s the date today? Write the date today in numbers. Dictation #11 (Messenger/Scribe) Catherine has a niece. Her name is Vieve. She lives in Seattle with her husband. His name is Jeff. Jeff and Vieve have a dog. The dog s name is Owen. Catherine has a dog too. His name is Charlie. Owen and Charlie do not like each other. Dictation#12 (Messenger/Scribe) Every day we read a morning note. Every day we spell words on the board. Every day we write a dictation. Every day we have a break. Every day we work on the movie. Now the movie is done. What are we going to do? Dictation #13 (Messenger/Scribe) Yesterday, Catherine went to visit her niece Vieve, and Vieve s husband Jeff. Their dog Owen barked at Catherine for ten minutes. Owen likes to bark. Catherine drank some orange juice. She stayed for an hour. When she got home, her dog Charlie could smell Owen. Gr e e n R ive r C om m u n it y C ol l e g e ES OL P r og r a m L e ve l 1 Page 2
Dictation #14 (Line Formation) Group #1 Last weekend Catherine s husband Paul and her son Leo went to New Mexico. Paul and Leo took two airplanes. She had a lot of fun! Group #2 Paul s parents live in Las Cruces, New Mexico. They left on Friday and returned on Monday. But she missed her family. Group #3 Leo had not seen his grandparents in a long time. Catherine watched six movies over the weekend. She was happy to see them again. Dictation #15 (Line formation with me saying it instead of them reading it.) 1. My nephew s name is Jason 2. His wife Meg is pregnant with a girl. 3. They have one daughter. 4. Soon they will have two daughters. 5. My other nephew s name is Chris. 6. His wife Sara is also pregnant. 7. They do not know if the baby is a boy or a girl. 8. They have two daughters. 9. Chris wants a boy. Dictation #16 (Students take turns reading a sentence.) 1. Thanksgiving is an important holiday in the U.S.A. 2. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is a hard time to travel. 3. The airports are crowded. 4. Traffic is heavy. 5. The grocery stores are busy. 6. People want to eat Thanksgiving dinner with their friends and family. Dictation #17 (Students write, pass, correct) Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Catherine and her family are going to have dinner with some friends. They will bring bread and an apple pie. They will not bring turkey. Their friends do not eat meat. Gr e e n R ive r C om m u n it y C ol l e g e ES OL P r og r a m L e ve l 1 Page 3
Dictation #18 (leave off word, replaced with click of clicker) This information is from the movie we watched. Students can write whole sentence, or just the word. Also works as an oral game. 1. Opal likes to ride bike. 2. Opal finds Winn-Dixie at a. 3. Opal and her live in a trailer. 4. Otis works the pet store. 5. Otis the guitar. 6. Gloria has bad. 7. Opal ten years old. 8. The preacher is about his wife. Dictation #19 (leave off word, replaced by clicker.) This is from a movie we watched. Students can write whole sentence, or just the word. Also works as an oral game. 1. Bears honey. 2. The cub s dies in an avalanche. 3. A shoots the big bear. 4. The big is wounded. 5. The two meet each other. 6. The big bear protects the. 7. The chase the bears up the mountain. 8. The big bear the hunter s dog. 9. The hunters catch cub. 10. The bear finds Tom. 11. The bear not kill him. 12. So, Tom does kill the bear. Gr e e n R ive r C om m u n it y C ol l e g e ES OL P r og r a m L e ve l 1 Page 4
Dictation Ideas from Dictation New methods, new possibilities by Paul Davis and Mario Rinvolucri 1. Teacher reads at normal pace. Students must say Stop! Go back to 2. Give individual sentences to individual students. Each student gets to dictate his/her sentence. Encourage them to read it as a sentence, as many times as needed. 3. Dictate one sentence. Students write it, then pass paper. Then read and correct the sentence in front of them, then write th4e second sentence on that paper. Repeat. 4. Intersperse dictations with questions. a. How many words in that sentence? b. What is the opposite of tall? c. What does s mean? d. What is the plural of cat? The cat jumped on the tall bookshelf. The cat s tail hit a vase. 5. Tell students a story. Tell it again and ask students to write down 5 important words from the story. Students compare their lists. 6. Teacher dictates, students draw. They need to know these words: top, bottom, middle, left, right, corner. Draw a cat in the middle of the paper. 7. Read a dictation replacing some words with a clicker sound. Students have to guess and fill in the word. Opal lives with her. or Opal lives her father. or Opal lives with father. 8. Post a group of words on the board. Students have to come to the front, select two words, make a sentence, and dictate it. Correct as necessary. 9. Student A has part of the text. Student B has part of the text. They take turns dictating words to each other to complete the text. A. Opal a. B. is girl. Gr e e n R ive r C om m u n it y C ol l e g e ES OL P r og r a m L e ve l 1 Page 5
10. Post text on wall. Everyone must go read it, then return to their desk to write it. Variation 1: One student of a pair comes to read it, and then goes back and dictates it to her partner. Variation 2: One student of a pair comes up and hears me say the sentence, then goes back to dictate it to her partner. 11. Line students up with one at board and others in group staggered to the back of the class. The student at the end can see or hear the text, and repeats it to the student next in line, etc. till the message gets to the student at the board who writes it down. 12. Make an overhead with some key words. Show list for 12 seconds. Remove. Students try and recreate list. Uncover list. Make sure students know all the words. Show them first sentence for 5 seconds. They try and write it. 13. Teacher reads sets of two or three sentences about her own life. One is false, the other(s) are true. Students listen and choose the false one to write down. Gr e e n R ive r C om m u n it y C ol l e g e ES OL P r og r a m L e ve l 1 Page 6