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Hi, ladies!

I am beginning CTC and Preparing with my dc and was wondering how to determine which dictation level to use for them. Do the levels correspond to actual grade level? My ds is in grade 6 but there is no level 6. My dd is in grade 4 and she has never done any dictation. Only spelling lists... TIA!

HOD's dictation starts in Bigger with Level 1. Level 1 is somewhere between 3rd and 6th grade, depending on the student. Normally you start with the lowest level of dictation in a guide and see how it goes. If your child is getting the passages right the first day after a few days you can skip ahead to the middle of the level. If that is too easy after a week or so, skip to the next level. They need to get the spelling and grammar correct in the passage.

What I do with my kids (because I'm awful about remembering dictation and have to do this more than I should) is to have them do every other one or every third one until they miss one. Sometimes we do 3-4 or more passages in a day (so that would be passing 10-12 passages in the book each day) just to get them on track. This way you aren't skipping too far and making it too hard on them. I'd definitely start at the first level in the Preparing guide because dictation is so much different than lists.

I would start with the lowest level of dictation in each guide and work through it little by little. I'm one of those who does it as written. We started in Preparing with my oldest who is now finishing up MMtM and the Level 8 Dictation. I am so glad that I had her do dictation from the beginning level. Not only is she an excellent speller but she also has a very strong grasp on punctuation (thanks to dictation). As you get higher in dictation, there are stories (right now she's writing about Joan of Arc) so I would not suggest getting in the habit of skipping passages.

I expect my 10 year old (in Level 3 in the Preparing Guide) to make sure all commas are exact, that she has not forgotten to indent, etc., or she must redo the passage. This careful attention to detail has served my oldest very well and she is cautious to correct herself and write with a great deal of care. We have beautiful stickers for their dictation books and the passages they complete correctly. I love going back and seeing oldest's sweet handwriting from when she was 9.

If either child wants to move ahead and do a second or third dictation passage, I'm happy to oblige but that is uncommon here since they really spend time studying each one before writing.

Dictation is not necessarily based on grade.

Are your children naturally good spellers or not so much? If your oldest is a good speller, I would start him in level 4 or 5. I think that level 2 and 3 would be way to easy for him because those words are much more simple than the level 4 or 5 words. My oldest dd is dyslexic so we don't use dictation but she would place in level 4 right now if I placed her. With your child in Preparing, I would look at the lists as well. With a child that spells well for that age, I would look at list 3. But you want to make sure they are copying some words that they already know and learning new words that they are using through out. So as another poster mentioned, I would look through and see if you think your child has mastered most of the words in that level or not. If they have mastered most of those words, I probably wouldn't do that level. If not, then I would. That is how I would pick. And if you find that your child misses the same passage 3 days in a row, then you would want to bump them down in level.

I am another one that does dictation exactly as written. When my ds started in Preparing I started him I think midway through level 3. If they are consistently getting each passage correct the first time then you could jump up maybe 10 passages or so and try from there for a week or two and see how often they have to repeat a passage. The goal is for them to only have to repeat 1 or 2 passages a week. If you find they are having to repeat a passage several times before getting it all right then your at too high of a level. As others mentioned they have to get all punctuation, indenting, spelling etc right before moving on. Once you find the right starting point you just work from there up. I also would not recommend skipping passages because they build on each other and some are easier than others so you might end up skipping the harder ones. My ds just finished level 7 and he is in the High School World Geography Guide. His spelling has consistently improved every year. He is great at looking at a word and telling if it is misspelled and I know that is due to dictation.

Thank you so much ladies! I definitely understand a lot better now and will take your advice with looking through the levels and experimenting with the best fit for them. So glad I asked!