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I was just wondering about the extension words included with the dictation passages. How are those words used? Are those given as 'spelling words'? Also, I'm interested in knowing how others have students or help students study the passages. I'm not sure how letting my daughter just sit and look over it on her own is going to work out. Do I stay with her when she is looking at it? I understand that I should go over certain words with her, but is this typically something they sit and study on their own? We are into unit 2 in Bigger, but we are just starting dictation. Do I understand correctly that she looks over a passage the first day, and if she can write it correctly that same day, on the second day she gets a new passage? I guess I am used to studying spelling words for a couple of days and then writing them from memory. I just want to make sure I know what I'm doing with this.

Well, here is how WE do it. My DD sits and looks it over and she likes to spell the words out loud (she is NOT a visual learner). So she will say the word and spell it out loud for each word. We do not do the extension words. My understanding is if you want to use those you just say them after the sentence and the child writes them, similar to how they appear in the book. Anyway, after she studies I dictate it to her. Yes, if they get it all correct, including capitalization and punctuation, then they do the next passage the next day. If not, they repeat it the next day. The passages build on one another and words are often repeated from one to the next. It's more of a "whole writing" experience rather than just words. My DD likes it a lot better and it has really helped her grow in spelling.

Depending on how you think she will do, you may want to help her out in studying it or find a way that works for you and her. Given that she has had some learning issues it might require some help from you for her to study (and I am not the person to make suggestions as to what that might be).

Thanks, Melissa. I know my daughter will enjoy this more than word lists. It's the 'studying' part I'm not quite sure of. I have been with her for almost everything. Sometimes I will give her directions for something and walk away to let her work independently for a little while, but how do I give her directions for this? We will try our first one today and see what happens.

We only do the extra words when they seem to be having trouble with one of the concepts that the words cover. I think we've done them 10 times total through two kids and several years. When one of mine is first starting dictation I write out a list of the things they are responsible for knowing... spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and anything I'm forgetting. I have them study the passage, then check the list to make sure to look at specific things. Then study the passage again. It takes a while for the first few weeks, but then it takes maybe 5 minutes total to do a dictation passage. And yes, if they get it all right, they move on the next day. If ANYTHING is wrong they do the same passage again each day until they get it right. Oh, and if they get something wrong I have them rewrite the passage (whole thing at first) correctly so that they see how it's supposed to be in their writing. Once they get the hang of it I'll just have them copy the portion they miss, or if it's something like missing a capital letter we just discuss it.

I agree that it's not really clear how to handle the studying time, it's really open to interpretation as to how you want to approach it. Again, you'll probably want to do it with her at least at first. Then once you think she has a good handle on what she needs to do in order to study, you could leave it to her to do it. I like MomToJGJE's method of writing up on the board the things they need to be sure to remember. My DD when she is saying the spelling out loud will say the commas but not the end punctuation, I think she figures that out as she goes.

I wonder if it would be okay for her to even copy it out once when studying. I think that would help cement some of the "visual memory" they emphasize as a good way to learn it.

Thank you both for the ideas. I had been wondering about what to do with the mistakes. I didn't know if they should actually correct the mistakes they make on the original writing or just rewrite it. So, in the dictation notebooks, there may be a page with the same passage written several times? I also like the idea of making a list of what she needs to know, so she can read each step. This will be very helpful.

psreit wrote:Thank you both for the ideas. I had been wondering about what to do with the mistakes. I didn't know if they should actually correct the mistakes they make on the original writing or just rewrite it. So, in the dictation notebooks, there may be a page with the same passage written several times? I also like the idea of making a list of what she needs to know, so she can read each step. This will be very helpful.

If my student has to do a passage for a second time the next day, then we turn the page and he has to write it on a fresh page. On the previous day, he made the corrections to his passage.

There are instructions on the first page of the dictation section in the appendix. As written, it says that you are helping your child study the passage. I do have my son in RTR look over it himself first for a minute, but I always point out the punctuation. With my daughter in Bigger, I go over the whole thing with her. I generally ignore the extra words. They are in the original 1916 book. I believe their purpose is just to point out other similarly spelled words.

When my ds was first starting dictation he would go through the following steps. He would write any bold words on the white board. Then he would write the word that was before the punctuation and include the punctuation, also on the white board. He would then look for any other words he didn't know in the passage and I would also look and see if there were any words that I thought might be a struggle and would point those out to him and have him write those on the white board. This worked very well. Now that he is done dictation for many years and is in the final level he writes some of the bold words and then counts up how many commas and mentally stores which word they are after and he mentally stores up all the other punctuation.

He types his because of his dysgraphia so we haven't used a dictation notebook, but I would think if he was repeating a passage you would do it on a new page, or use a piece of solid colored paper to hide the previous one.

We use a scribbler and every day (whether it's a new passage or not) we switch to a new page.

For one son we cut the scribbler pages into three sections so it's like a flip book (the kind where you can choose an animal head, body and legs so they end up looking funny, lol). When he finishes going through the top section we will move to the middle section, then the bottom.

My other son didn't want to cut his book so when we're done using every page once I'll probably go through and write a bold line (maybe in one color of marker?) under his work. He'll then go through the book again, always working under that line. I'll use a different color each time he starts through again.

And for practice, one son (the 9yo, my natural speller) looks it over, noting any bold words and memorizing punctuation intentionally (and often gets it right first try), the other one (12yo) needs to be reminded what to (or maybe just TO) look for punctuation, etc. I really like Lynn's idea for the white board - I think it will work well for this son.

Blessings,

All of these ideas are very helpful. We did the first passage yesterday, and Angie missed the period at the end of the first sentence and didn't capitalize the second sentence. She didn't run them together. She wrote them on separate lines as I dictated them, so I'm not sure why she forgot them, but when I pointed out the mistakes, she commented that she remembered seeing the period. (I didn't have her write it first ) So, I think dictation is going to stretch her visual memory. Incorporating some of these ideas will be necessary. Thanks for all the advice.

When they've missed something I just have them cover up the previous one with a paper or book or something.