I am still tinkering with my latest book. I would appreciate feedback on this printable download, if anyone would mind testing it in class and making comments in a comment field below. Here are the instructions:
GENERAL: Have a few sentences prepared using information generated during the Create phase. Students hear each sentence three times but write it only once.
Follow these steps:
1. Read the sentence through slowly but without interruption. The students listen.
2. Read the sentence through at an extremely slow pace. Pause amply between individual words or word chunks. The students write what they hear.
3. Read the sentence through without interruption. The students check their work. Read slowly enough for them to make last minute changes.
4. The students skip two lines between their writing to allow the processing work described later in this list.
5. Reveal the correct version of each sentence on the document camera, one sentence at a time. The students compare their version with the correct version.
6. Require that the students copy the text correctly on the first line below the line they just wrote on. They are graded on the accuracy of their copying.
7. Then they go into their own writing and – using a different colored pen – circle everything that is different from the correct sentence just displayed by the teacher.
8. Students do not have to correct their writing (though some will want to), but they do have to circle everything that was different.
9. When assessing their work, award a perfect score for correctly circled mistakes and correctly copied text on the line below.
10. When students know that they only have to copy correctly and identify their own misspellings, they embrace dictation and feel successful, which is our goal.
11. Dictations that go beyond ten minutes are too long.