Dictados

I want to make it very clear that I stole everything I know about dictados from Ben Slavic. I also want it known that this is NOT TPRS. It's pretty much very focused output. There is a lot of comprehensible input going on here, and I have seen a lot of gains (especially in confidence) from it, so I will keep doing it, especially since it really doesn't take up more than ten-fifteen minutes of class a week.

I keep my dictados to 5 sentences. They are always recycled from the stuff (stories, readings, etc.) we do in class, so there is no new information in them. The students can focus entirely on writing the information, not on comprehension. It lowers the affective filter a lot. I tell my kids that I only expect them to give me ten minutes a week of undivided, focused work time for spelling and grammar. (Which is really a lot, but that's another blog entirely.)

As in any dictation, the students have a piece of notebook paper, and they copy what they hear me say. However, I have them leave two blank lines between every line they write on. So, there is a line of text, then two blank lines, then another line of text.

I read through the five sentences very slowly. I usually read them through two times, although I will offer more, especially if there are complicated structures or long sentences in there. After I have read the dictation through and students are ok with it, I project the correct version of the dictation on the board. (I was lucky enough to have an interactive white board last year which made this all very fun.) At this point I go through the dictation again, but letter by letter, accent mark by accent mark. I point out all the tricky things, but I do it via pop-up lessons and circling. "Class, Did you notice the accent mark here? Why do I have an ía at the end of this verb? That's right! It's in the past tense." Then I keep going.

While I am going over the correct version of the dictation, my students are following along on their papers. Their assignment is to underline all their errors, and on the line immediately below the error they are to copy the correct spelling of the word. I print out hard copies of the dictation for students who have difficulty changing their focus from the paper to the board and back.

When I grade the papers, I only grade on what has been corrected. So, every single student regardless of his/her ability to spell can earn an A+. Talk about lowering that affective filter! I just removed all possibility of failure.

But it isn't just an easy A.

First of all, I am picky about accent marks and punctuation, because I am giving them the corrections visually and orally. So, the first mistake brings them to an A. After that, every second mistake drops them a letter grade. I write the new corrections directly beneath the mistake, so either on that second or third line.

Second, I am differentiating my butt off here, and I'm not even breaking a sweat. Every student is getting a spelling lesson and a grammar lesson in EXACTLY what he/she needs to learn.

Third, I am getting true assessments from this. When I look at the dictations, which I do, I am noticing where students are making mistakes. If a word or phrase keeps popping up, and it is a high frequency word, I make sure to recycle it into future lessons. If it's a "throw-away" word, one that isn't used often but was in that story, I don't pay much attention to it.

As the year went on, I noticed that despite (or is that because of) the lack of fear about grades, my students were making fewer and fewer mistakes on their spelling. That was in the dictations, and in the free writes. They were nailing words that are often spelled incorrectly.

weekly schedule and dictations

Desiree said:
This will be my 3rd year teaching and 2nd year doing TPRS. I love your idea of a routine and wanted to get some input from you. You said Mon & Fri is free reading, Tues free writing and Thurs dictation. What did you mean by no normal class on Wed. (do you not meet)? I see my students for 50 min Mon-Fri so I was wondering how this would work. How long do each of these activities take each day? Also, do you give them a grade for dictations? In my first year I did a dictation every 2-3 weeks but I would do the dictation on Mon as practice and they would rewrite the correct version afterwards and Friday I would do the same dictation but this time taking it up for a quiz grade. I didn't know if you do something like this. Thanks for any advice you can give me. Thanks for your blog....it is great learning from master teachers.

I have really loved the idea of a routine. The kids always knew what to expect when coming in to class. My administrators loved it too. As much as TPRS is a fairly organic process and is not as easily planned as other ways of teaching, it always *looked* very organized and planned. Administrators would look at my board and see that today we were going to do Free Writes, and then a class story, and they never asked me for more detailed lesson plans. The students were happily writing, so obviously is was a well-planned and organized classroom. Heh. If only they knew.
Wednesdays were not a normal day because out here they have one day a week that is an early release day. That is, school lets out an hour and a half earlier and that’s when teacher meetings and staff development are scheduled. This past year we had all the normal classes, but at a much smaller clip. It was perfect for reading the novel, because we could spend the whole class time reading without getting overwhelmed. I don’t know how I will adjust my schedule this coming year now that I am on an 80 minute class every other day.
I’ve never thought to give the dictation again as a quiz grade later in the week. I do give a grade for dictations, and I counted it as an assessment. But, the way I did that was to give students a grade based on what they were able to turn in correct. I read the dictation straight through twice. Students wrote what they thought they heard. Now, I based my dictation on the class story or the novel we had been reading. As students were writing, they left two blank lines after every line of their text. When I posted the correct version on the board, students underlined any words they had not spelled correctly, and copied the correct version on the line underneath. This focused their attention specifically where they needed it. I actually really like the low-stress atmosphere of kids are only scored on what they are able to correct. Everybody can get an A, even if they are not the world’s best spellers. What a way to lower that affective filter, while still sneaking in that scary subject like spelling. By the way, I stole this idea in its entirety from Ben Slavic.
And, even though this is an output activity, and focused on spelling and grammar, I still think it is a valuable activity. For one, it reinforces the stories we have been asking or reading all week. For two, it builds the students’ confidence as they see that each week they are making fewer corrections on their papers. Students who have difficulty writing still get to build their confidence because they can earn A’s, even if spelling has never been something they’ve been good at in English either. The first few times, I had students staring at their papers in surprise, they couldn’t believe they had gotten a good grade. By the end of the year, their dictations were a source of pride. And finally, I know that when they leave my classroom, they have to transition into a traditional class where spelling and grammar are the focus of a lot of their grade.
This lets me focus instruction on spelling and grammar, but still doing it through comprehensible input – I just do pop-up spelling and grammar after the dictation. So, I don’t interrupt the dictation with the grammar or the spelling, but when I’m going through the corrections, I will often have the class translate the passage, and then I’ll ask why for instance, the verb ends in –amos.
I would print out a few hard copies for students with visual processing issues, so they had a person copy and didn’t have to keep changing their focus from the board to their paper. I was also very pleased with the whole dictation process because it naturally differentiated for every student’s individual needs. Each student only underlined and corrected the words that he/she needed to work on. And if when grading the dictations I noticed a pattern, I would make sure to incorporate those words in future dictations too. You know those tricky words that always catch up all but the best students (and even those students sometimes) we spend all year correcting students’ work and yet on that final exam they still make those mistakes? Well, my students nailed those tricky words this year, and they were able to grasp basic spelling patterns. I think part of that comes from the dictations.

an apology

I have a student who has barely turned in an assignment in two years. He falls asleep in class. He falls down asleep while standing. Often the only way to know he has been in class is to look around and see all of his belongings there after he has left. Sadly, this is his m.o. in all of his classes.

Each week on Thursday we do a dictation. I read five sentences in Spanish and students do their best to write what they hear. I read the entire passage two times, and then I project the correct version on the screen. Students are to then edit their paper, underlining their errors and writing the entire correct word directly beneat the original error. To that end, I have students skip two blank lines between every line of text. One blank line is for their edits, and the second one is for my eyes, and also to give me a space to write further edits should they need it.

Well, this particular student only left one line between each line of text. And then, at the bottom of the page he wrote "Lo siento por no tener dos linias blancas." Almost flawless Spanish. It means: I am sorry for not having two blank lines.

So:
1. He noticed he hadn't followed directions.
2. He cared enough to apologize.
3. He did it in Spanish!

Dictations - evidence of comprehension...

I spent part of my holiday yesterday grading dictations, and I found a curious pattern that showed my students were understanding what I said, even if they were not following instructions.

A brief background. I do dictations a la Ben Slavic. First, there is not English spoken during a dictation. I read through the dictation two times. Rather than reading one word at a time, I read in natural clusters of words - words tend to be said in groups rather than individually, so that's the way I read my dictation. I offer a third repetition if anybody needs it. Then I project the answers on the screen. Students underline any mistakes they made and make the corrections immediately below the original error. Unlike many of our activities which are focused on comprehension, the dictation is focused on the details. The sentences are based on stories we have told or read recently, but students are not asked any questions about the material.

In Spanish there are two words that usually translate into English as "for." These are "por" and "para." They are used with completely different meanings in Spanish, and this is often a difficult concept for English speakers to master. I have no idea if this changes through TPRS or not (the distinction between the two past tenses seems to become more intuitive through TPRS instruction.) In my dictation I used the word "para" I had a small group of students write the word "por" instead. Now, the two words don't sound the same, other than the initial sound.

My assumption is that the sentences made so much sense to these students that their brains felt comfortable filling in the next most logical word rather than listening intently and trying to sound it out.

I am of two minds with this. On the one hand, I wish the students had been listening more carefully - I only ask for this attention to detail for ten minutes of the week. And I wish that they had been more careful with their editing as well. On the other hand, I am thrilled that they were understanding the material so well.

Now I guess I just have to write some stories with lots of por and para repetitions.

:)

dictation take two

There was a conversation on the moreTPRS listserve about how to use a dictation most effectively. I picked the dictation up from ben Slavic. In his version, you read a short version of a story from class and students write it down, skipping two lines between every line they write. On the second line, they copy teh correct version of the dictation from the board. They are only scored on the second line.

In the conversation, one of the other members pointed out that she has students again write on every third line. But then she has them underline their mistakes and only write the words they got wrong on the second line. This has a few benefits. Mostly that students love being able to exempt out of things, and my students at least will often not try if they feel that their effort is worthless. In this way, they are encouraged to do their best on the first go round, because then they have less to write during the correction phase. It's also helpful because the activity is able to draw students' attention to their mistakes more clearly.

Needless to say, I tried it. I like it, and think I will stay with this model of dictation next year.

what's the point?

In analyzing my student survey last week, I realized that I never explained to the kids why we were doing all these new activities in the beginning of class. I had set up a routine. On Monday and Friday we have Free reading, on Tuesday we have Free writing, and on Thursday we have Dictation. (We don't have normal classes on Wednesdays.) The students were doing the activities, and they had learned our new routines, but because they didn't understand the purpose behind them they were not getting the full benefit of the activities.

So, here's what I boiled down for them:

Free reading: We do this to improve our vocabulary in the language. We learn most of our vocabulary in our native tongue through reading. We also learn words much quicker through reading than through hearing them used. Another reason to read in the target language is because students begin to absorb the correct syntax and grammar as they see it in use. By reading for a set time without stopping to look words up or write anything down, we allow the brain to start absorbing the new language, without relying on the first language as that permanent crutch.

Free writing: Mostly, my purpose behind the free writes is to reduce anxiety and to get students in the habit of writing. There are several graded essays I have to give throughout the year. These are graded on length, grammar & conventions, verb conjugations, vocabulary usage, Organization (including using introducitons, transitions, conclusions and proper paragraphing), and content. If students are already used to writing in Spanish for a specific length of time, that is one less hurdle to jump when it comes time for these essays. Now they can focus specifically on the task at hand. Another minor point is that Free writes also give students something concrete to look at and measure their own growth. A student who began the year writing barely 13 words can look back at his or her portfolio and see that now he/she is writing 50 words in the same time frame.

Dictation: This is mostly to practice spelling, grammar and punctuation. The affective filter is low because students are not graded on what they do not know - they are graded on being able to correctly copy from the board. But because they have to first listen and write what they hear, it focuses their attention on the specifics of what they do know and what they need to learn in a very non-threatening way. I find that it is working much better than me trying to lecture students, or constantly correcting their spelling in an essay. Some of my lower students are now spelling words like "hay" correctly, even though a few months/weeks ago they may have spelled it "I."

I am taking away two points for me to learn from this activity: first I am reminded to explain my logic to the students - they need to know why we are doing something in order to fully buy into it and get the most benefit from it. Second I was forced to really look at my logic and why I was doing these activities. Yes, I had read about them on the TPRS listserv, or heard about them from colleagues, but that isn't why I was incorporating them into my class.