Dictation
May 30th, 2010 at 3:16pm |
We are moving from copywork to one page of dictation per day. Right now it is taking to Octavio almost one hour to finish one page, he is working hard, but I hope that with this daily exercise he be able to reduce his time to 30 minutes for the middle of the next school year, we will see 
I am ordering more paper with lines, he is not ready for write in regular paper, his handwriting is much better when he has the middle line for guide.
Posted in Writing-Escritura
Wow, that is impressive Perla! My 9 year old son could not even do this, let alone my 6 year old.
Perla en Donnayoung.org hay papel así para imprimir.
Gracias Andrea, me había hecho loca buscando ese papel en la internet. Los sitios que conocían solo tienen las líneas blanco y negro y de paso muy separadas. Ya imprimí suficientes páginas para el dictado de esta semana, ya tengo mientras me llega la resma que encargue.
La mayoría del papel de escritura que encuentro aquí es para Árabe y no tiene las tres líneas, y el que venden para ingles no es de tan buena calidad (es un papel muy delegado impreso en papel reciclado, no me gusta).
Gracias nuevamente, no conocía ese sitio DonnaYoung, es muy bueno.
Hello Dawne,
I did not Octavio was able to make dictation, but the necessity push me to start.
Before he was doing copywork from the same book (Advice o the Young by Noah Webster), but it was taking him forever just to copy a sentence, to many distraction - “I need juice”, “I lost the pencil”, etc- so I decided start to dictate in order that he can focus in the work. We have one week doing it, he is progressing (faster, lest mistakes, less complains!
)
Hi Perla,
Could you explain more how you are doing dictation with Octavio please?
I would love to have a clear picture of how you are doing this exactly.
For example, since my 6 and 9 year olds have never done formal spelling, or grammar (until age 10):
1. How would they be spelling the words in this dictation? (philosopher, etc).
2. How would they be placing proper commas and semi-colons in this dictation?
Thank you!
also:
1. have you done spelling with Octavio?
2. have you done grammar with Octavio?
3. do you feel dictation before 10 is good use of time? (I think TTT suggests it beginning at age 10)
Hello Dawn:
I am doing spelling with Octavio since the beginning of this school year (34 school weeks ago, current we are in the 35th week of the 36). We are using Spelling Power. I am taking the book very slow, at Octavio’s pace, even so, we just beginning level D. The book is very simple to follow; it is a very easy book.
Still I didn’t make English grammar with Octavio, except the grammar that come from Prima Latina and Latina Christiana (Example, a noun is the name of something, a verb is a action words, etc, very simple concepts, just descriptive) also there is some simple concepts from Understanding Writing (sentences, a paragraph, the use of punctuation marks).
I know that Octavio is not ready for formal grammar; I notice it as we advance in Greek. We stopped In the lesson where it was required indentify subject and direct object, Octavio does not understand those concepts, too abstract for him.
I am using dictation in place of copywork, because Octavio get very distracting while making copywork, with dictation - because I am right there with him- he does not have the option to get distracted.
To make dictation is very simple: Octavio seat down, pencil in hand, and then I start to dictate the words one by one, example:
-Perla: Octavio start with capital “Here- not- only (those are simple words, he know how to spell them).
If there is a punctuation mark, I told him “question mark, semicolon, etc” He already knows that new sentences must start with capital.
When we find a new word, as philosopher, I let him write it as he think (in philosopher he started writing “f”) so I stop him right there and told him, “no philosopher start with phi”, so we write ph… If necessary I spell the whole word letter by letter.
The objectives of copywork and dictation are learning good spelling and grammar in a practical way. The only way to learn to spell words is looking at the words (reading), and practicing the words (writing the words). Spelling Power is basically that: dictation of words, correction and practicing the words in sentences until mastering the rule.
I really do not see any difference between copywork and dictation; I do not consider dictation formal grammar. Now if the child is required to identify in the sentence (copying or by dictation) subject, predicate, direct object, modifiers, etc, well that is something different.
If a child focus in his copywork, probable he will not need somebody telling him what to write, but if the child is easy to distract, he need dictation.
Bye for now
Perla, ¿cómo es el escritorio de Octavio? A Iñaki el suyo le quedó chico y le voy a mandar a hacer otro, me interesa el hábito de la buena postura al escribir.
Thank you, Perla, that was very helpful.
Perla, tengo otra consulta más. ¿Me podrías facilitar este schedule anual que usas? Yo hago homeschool año corrido, y paro cuando tengo imprevistos o vacaciones. Pero aún asi me vendría bien este schedule, ya que a veces la vida me dilata muho. Por ejemplo ahora, ya llevo dos semanas sin poder hacer un schedule regular. Cuando esto te pasa a ti, ¿haces otras actividades o intentas hacer el schedule regular los días de esa semana que puedes?
Gracias.
Hola Andrea:
Octavio no tiene un escritorio específico, tiene varias mesas con sillas, generalmente una en cada lugar donde a veces hacemos homeschooling. A veces él prefiere escribir en el suelo, yo lo dejo, con tal que haga buena letra, allá él con su postura.
Me gustaría encontrar un pupitre como los que yo usaba en la escuela (las sillas que traen la mesa incorporada y con un poco de inclinación hacia el frente), pero aquí nunca los he visto, así que lo único que encuentro son de esas mesitas de niño de las marcas Stage 2 (lo que venden en Toys R Us), o mesitas regulares de madera que venden en tiendas de muebles infantiles
En el siguiente link esta el shedule del año presente (que pronto lo voy a terminar de usar), aun no he definido el próximo, solo lo tengo pensado. Octavio termina el año escolar la próxima semana, de allí tomaremos una semana de vacaciones y luego comenzaremos de nuevo. Para ese tiempo si ya tendré definido y publicado aquí en el blog el nuevo horario.
http://theclassicalmommy.com/blog/?p=560
Hago homeschooling 180 días al año, durante 36 semanas (5 días a la semana). Si no logro hacer el día de acuerdo al shedule, no lo cuento como día de escuela. A veces me toca hacer algo en la mañana en medio de la semana, ese día intento hacer el programa en la tarde, pero si no lo logro entonces repongo ese día o lo que falto cubrir de ese día el fin de semana.
Este año escolar tuvimos muchos contratiempos, en el pasado para la primera semana de Mayo ya habíamos terminando, pero esta vez estamos atrasados cuatro semanas.
Si uno hace homeschooling el año corrido, hay que estar listo para contratiempos y debes buscar un mecanismos de incluir esas actividades imprevistas en tus records. Quizá podrías tener un shedule par cierta cantidad de días ( para garantizar cubrir ciertas cosas) y otras páginas libres para el resto del año. Tratar de seguir un shedule fijo todo el año puede ser muy estresante.
Seguimos en contacto
Bye, bye
I print out paper when I run out from here:
http://www.zaner-bloser.com/zbfontsonline/index.htm
You can select a paper template, leave it blank, and print it out.
Thanks for all the wonderful ideas you share!
Thank you Angela, I used to visit Zaner Bloser when Octavio was starting to write but never, never found the paper templates. Thank you for the link.
I think he has beautiful handwriting for his age. We are also working on our cursive still (Alex writes too big) and I’m trying to get her to write words smaller. We will continue to work on it during the summer. I usually make some copywork cursive sentences using Zaner Bloser online template and then have her copy that on their template paper. She still needs practice as I see her mixing print and cursive (much like my own handwriting, unfortunately). Glad to see Octavio and you are both doing well and progressing.
regards, Aly.
Can I repost this on my blog? I’ll drop you a backlink. Let me know, thanks!
Yes, Truman, it is fine