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I'm doing the dictation with my older teenage daughter in CTC. She's only in CTC because we just came to HOD this past year and I wanted to develop some of those skills she had never done. I don't exactly get how to do the dictation. I think we are doing level 5. She doesn't have trouble with any spelling or anything, but do I read a sentence once and then she must get it from there and remember it all? Do you repeat anything?
Also, I'm doing the first set of dictation passages with my daughter in Bigger. I figured out that when she is studying it, she's trying to memorize it all. One day I asked her if she was ready to do it and she said not quite, and then I noticed she was trying to memorize it. It's fairly easy because it's somewhat short still. The words are all simple for her, spelling is not an issue with any of them yet. How do I teach her to study it, what exactly does it mean to study it?

Thanks!

When we've done dictation, our dd usually studies the passage by finding words that seem difficult to her and practicing writing them out a few times. She does that until she feels "ready", and I then I would read the passage in short sections (or sentences) and have her write it down.

The goal with dictation is not memorization. I know in some programs that are more classical based that is the case, but Carrie has talked about that not being the goal here. You want to have them study the passage paying attention to all spelling and punctuation including things like indenting. Then you read it a phrase or sentence at a time and they write it down, and you read the next phrase. If your dd is getting them all right then you could jump forward in the level. You want to find the spot where they are having to redo around one passage a week, two at the most. Again though that includes getting all spelling, punctuation, capitalization etc correct. The Appendix of the guide gives more instruction on how to do dictation.