In Part 1, I explained why I came to choose dictation and what it has done for my children (scroll down or click HERE to read "Delightful Dictation - Part 1").  In this entry, I'd like to share with you where I have received helpful information about dictation, and exactly what does a dictation lesson look like in our home.

Helpful Articles:

As far as specifics on dictation, there were two very helpful resources I found online.  The first was at a wonderful fellow homeschool Mom's blog that I visit frequently:  Higher Up and Further In.  This link will take you directly to her entries on spelling and dictation.  They were very helpful and were where I received most of my information when putting together what our lessons would look like.  Also her articles were where I received my inspiration that "hey, this just might work for us."

Also Eclectic Homeschool Online has a core information article on "Charlotte Mason and dictation" that gave me some great basic information.

Our Dictation Lessons:

The only teacher preparation that comes with dictation is the choosing of the source from which to administer the lesson.  "The sky's the limit" when choosing your source!  Last week, in our homeschool, we kept the theme of "snow and frost".  Upon preparing for some of the lessons, I came upon a very good and interactive article on frost.  So for our dication lesson on Thursday, I used an excerpt from that article.  The article was mostly written on my 11 yo daughter's reading comprehension level, however I was able to find a few key sentences that could also be used for my son.

When first starting dictation with my daughter last year, I had to start out very slow with the amount of dictation. Starting with only a small-sized paragraph.  She has now worked up to doing around 4 medium-sized paragraphs.  I am just starting to do dictation with my very active 9 yo son, administering only perhaps a few, not-too-long sentences.  So for my example of our day, I will use my daughter's typical dictation lesson.

We first start our lesson by reading the entire passage we will be using.  Next, I peruse each sentence calling out words that I believe she may have trouble spelling.  If she indeed cannot spell the word, I will place the word upon the white board.  The final list of words varies in number from just a few to up to 10.  If the spelling word list is going to go over 10, I stop the length of passage to use at that point, and will not go further.  After accumulating the spelling words, we then spend time taking a "mental picture" of the words and studying each one of them.  Before we are finished studying them, I administer a quick recall test to make sure she has them pat.  If not, we quickly repeat the studying process for that word.

Next, if there are any grammatical or puntuation rules used in this passsage that need to be taught or reviewed, we will spend a few moments going over each of those.  My daughter then pulls out her L.A. notebook, and we get started.  I begin by clearly, and not too fast, reading aloud the first sentence.  I immediately have her then repeat it back to me.  The idea is to only have to read it to her once, however, if it's a longer sentence, she sometimes requires a second reading before she can correctly remember the full sentence.  Also to keep in mind, when we first started dictation, she could only remember much shorter sentences, which was a clear indicator to me that she needed major help with verbal memory retention.  She has progressed very nicely on this!  Proof positive for me that it works!

Then, after repeating it correctly aloud to me, she begins writing the sentence down.  During this time I watch closely, and if I see a spelling error occurring, we do immediate correction before she goes on.  After she finishes the sentence, she then looks back over it for grammatical errors, and corrects those.  We continue in this manner until the entire passage is completed.

Writing it all out like this sounds like a lot of steps, but the entire process only averages taking us about 40 minutes. And as we've become more confident with the process, it takes even less some days.  Also to note, I only administer dictation lessons 3 days a week.  On the other days, we may do a fun and interesting Inter. Language Lesson, or a creative writing assignment.

As I said before, I have seen really great results with this process that I once doubted.  And it has brought back some of the joy into our homeschool that was getting zapped out by too many textbooks.

Here's a quick overview outline of our lessons:

Choose the Source

Read the Passage to Student

Identify and Study Spelling Words

Teach Needed Grammar and Punctuation Rules

Administer Dictation Process

We began this schoolyear using several wonderful resources for teaching Language Arts.  We were using Intermediate Language Lessons, Spelling Power, Daily Language Lessons, and a few other smaller resources.  While all this curricula was great, and I have little complaints about any of it specifically, I do have a complaint about the amount of time and energy that was spent trying to complete it all.  I wanted to use Intermediate Language Lessons because I loved the Charlotte Mason feel it had, but I felt it lacked a bit in the daily Grammar practice, so that lead me to use Daily Language Lessons which gives a quick daily overview of grammar principles.  Then, of course, I used Spelling Power to teach spelling.  Trying to check off all of these boxes each day with different programs was draining.  We were spending way more time doing things that, quite frankly, weren't exciting enough to offset all the time and effort spent.

Somewhere around the beginning of the second quarter, I was re-introduced to the concept of dictation.  Oh, delightful dictation, this time I truly understood it and got it!  It's a wonderful way of combining L.A. subjects into one assignment that can be easily tailored to my child's interests.  I have to admit, when I first started doing dictation with my daughter, my first thought was "Is that all, it's over already, surely she couldn't have gotten all she needed from that."  But as time went on, sure enough, dictation proved to me over and over again to be very effective.  It cut our L.A. teaching time in half.  And to top it off, I was able to make it interesting and even fun!  How you ask?

The greatest thing about dictation is being able to take a passage from any literary or other source that my children are interested in and use it.  Sometimes we use chapter books they are reading, sometimes the Bible, sometimes we use poetry, sometimes songs, sometimes news or magazine articles, etc.  I just try to pick something on their reading comprehension level and in their interest.  And here's another really cool thing, you can tie it into whatever theme you are doing.  For example, this month we are using the winter/snow theme, so our dictation has been pulled from great books, articles, poetry, etc., about winter or in the winter theme.  On Thursday, we read a great article about frost that I came across, and used part of it for dictation.  Not only is this more in line with my childrens interests, but also it allows me to easily mix things up each day with different resources, making things more interesting and less mudane.

I think, in the past, I've always resisted dictation for fear that I would be missing teaching my children something they needed.  So it was truly a big deal for me to let go of the "in the curriculum box" thinking.  But, it was quickly realized that, letting go of control was just what our family needed.  I have, first hand, seen great progress with my children since making this change.  It's truly amazing how dication opens up so many doors for teaching Language Arts and much more.  I have found dictation to be fully satisfying the subjects of spelling, grammar, handwriting, building listening skills, and it helps tremendously with memory retention (which my daughter really needed).  And by using resources that model great creative writing skills, they are in fact learning this too.  All while using things that are of particular interest to them.  And, certainly I must mention again that we are done in half the time as before, you can bet the kids and mom like that one!  I think it's important to note that I do on occasion still use Intermediate Language Lessons, just because we like it too!

In my next post, I will go into where I found information about doing dictation and what one of our dictation lessons looks like in our home.

I am just beginning to start to understand this newfound freedom in our homeschool.  The freedom to not live under the umbrella of an academic checklist.  After all, I am homeschooling, I am my children's teacher, I do know what's best for "my" kids.  Now, if I can just learn to enjoy Math this way!  I need to keep re-reading over and over again my friend Cindy's Post.  Check it out.