Long Spelling Dictation passages?

I was actually wondering how many words she doesn’t already know how to spell before studying and dictation. That’s an indicator of how well the difficulty of the material matches her skills. Once I know that I can give you a few tips for success.

This is NOT strictly CM, but here is one thing I do for longer passages for the punctiation part.  I agree, punctuation is not a deal-breaker here, but I do like my kids to get a feel for where the punctuation goes.  So I do the dictation through once, phrase by phrase; they write and spell the words correctly and put in what punctuation they can.  I grade what they have done then, leaving the punctuation aside except to tell them when they do it correctly.  THEN if necessary, I read through it ONE MORE TIME.  They are not allowed to change anything but punctuation; I read the passage with expression and try to convey with the reading where the punctuation goes (easier with more modern passages, many older writers were very profligate with punctuation!)  Then if they still don’t get it all, we just add it in as the passage was written and file the paper.  I think over time this helps them get a sense of where punctuation OUGHT to go; I agree tons of good reading is also key, but just like it’s hard to find a place when you’ve only been driven there, and not driven it yourself, sometimes it’s harder to pay attention to the “signs” when you’ve only been led, and not done the “work” yourself.  Just a thought in case it helps someone.