The Power of Dictation
Dictation and its Importance:
What Is Dictation: Dictation is an activity that provides students the opportunity to spell phonics patterns that they are currently focusing on, as well as the opportunity to practice previously-taught skills.
What it Is Important: When students practice dictation, they’re connecting sound to symbol. Many studies show that when students practice these letter-sound relationships, students excel. Dictation is a great way to practice this. Reading and writing go hand-in-hand, and once you incorporate dictation into your lessons, you’ll find quicker student success!
Keep in Mind That Dictation…
…should be a part of your daily lessons.
…helps connect reading to writing.
…is an extension of the phonics skills that are currently being taught.
…includes cumulative review.
“It’s never one and done. It’s one and just begun.” - Wiley Blevins
Blevins also states that we should review phonics skills that were learned 4-6 weeks previously to prevent “learning decay.”
…should be supported by providing immediate corrective feedback to students.
Five Steps for Dictation:
Teachers dictate the sentence and remind students to carefully listen.
Example: “The cat sat on the log.”
Students repeat the sentence, counting the number of words in the sentence.
Example: “The cat sat on the log.” Students notice that there are 5 words in the sentence.
Students write down the full sentence.
The teacher is not to give feedback at this time.
Students re-read their own writing, giving them the opportunity to self-correct.
Teacher checks and corrects students and provides immediate feedback.
Draw attention to a specific word and ask them to sound it out. When they do, ask, “Is this the same word that’s in the sentence?”
Common Student Struggles in Dictation:
Repeating the sentence.
Students simply may not have a strong working memory yet, so we work out this muscle by:
Having students repeatedly practice the sentence orally.
Begin with shorter sentences and increase the difficulty.
Provide students with manipulatives (push up a chip for each word in the sentence).
Then, start adding written dictation back into instruction when you feel their memory is strengthened.
Remembering the sentence after they’ve begun writing.
If students are writing a sentence and come across a word that’s difficult for them to spell, they end up forgetting the actual sentence.
When this happens, do not give the students the next word. Instead, have the student repeat the sentence back to you.
Then, he or she goes back and completes the sentence.
Being able to transfer the phonics skills to writing.
If you notice that students struggle to write that phonics skill, work on it more in your lesson.
Work from the word level and gradually make your way to the sentence level.
Not being able to read the sight words.
Be careful not to include sight words that your students haven’t studied yet.
Students shouldn’t be exposed to new sight words that aren’t in their repertoire.
Writing in a word that isn’t part of the dictation.
To correct, ask students to repeat the sentence orally and then re-read the sentence that they wrote.
If a student still struggles, then read the sentence and show them what word they added.
Students take out the word and then re-read the sentence.
CLICK HERE to snag these FREE dictation helpers
Step-by-step dictation sheet
A dictation cheat sheet to support students when they struggle
Short a dictation helpers to help with words and sentences that you’re dictating
Exit slip dictation sheet
