In the middle of some CI, I sometimes ask the kids to write a sentence that I dictate to them letter by letter, not word by word. The difference is that they don’t actually write on paper, and they don’t use a writing instrument – they just pretend wo write. It’s a race to see who can decode the sentence first. Just a fun little activity if things are dragging a bit.
If things are dragging a lot, as in, I don’t want to even try any CI today with this group, a formal dictation is a good bail out move, as it returns them to the part of their brains that they are used to being in all day. Another great bail out move is read and discuss.