Mila did her first dictée today and wanted to clarify a few points about the process: Q. How would you grade someone who copied the correct sentence but didn't circle their mistakes as instructed but corrected their mistakes with red pen? A.

For upper level kids as a fun break. Not intended for input gains, just some fun for kids who have a couple of years of language and who want a change in activities: 1. One student starts with Il y a 2.

Dictée is a tried and true bail out move. Getting the kids writing for about ten to minutes is a fail safe alternative if something we are doing isn't working. Searching the term dictée here is a good idea although some

This idea can get the students working in the three skills of reading, writing and listening all at once. It eats up minutes if you ever need that to happen. Level 1 kids obviously can't do it right now, but gnarly upper

This is just to mention a detail about setting up dictee, one of the spokes of our Invisibles Star. It's another great idea from Tina: When we start dictée (a few months into the year usually) it's hard to teach punctuation

Heading into a tough part of the year, we need mental support tools. The classic French dictée format to teach writing and reading is a powerful tool indeed. I think of dictée as a nice complementary activity to stories. I

Here is another idea, a repost from 2013, that maybe someone can use this year:

Erin Bas gives a good definition of Pictado. The key sentence is in italics: It is just like a Dictado (Dictée - see the category), but the students listen and draw. Sometimes I have them number off six boxes, sometimes it’s