Skipping Dictation

Well, I think the main purpose of dictation is spelling.

All of the skills you mentioned are more benefits of great literature, copy work, and oral and written narration in a CM education. It sounds  like you did great in those areas. 🙂

I never did dictation with my son either. He was a natural speller and I just wasn’t very consistent with him in this area.

However my daughter is not a natural speller and dictation has been a huge help for her! With consistent dictation she has gone from a poor speller to a pretty good one!

My son really dislikes dictation and I’m not crazy about it either, but my husband brought up a good point when he said my son absolutely needed to keep doing it.  He said that daily in his job, he has to listen on the phone to directions or information and then write it/type it, etc.  Our son also is very talkative and will forget instructions for a job once he opens his mouth to talk, or walks into a different room, so my husband thinks dictation is invaluable for him as a life skill, besides the spelling.

We have also added spelling  with a book I use for all of them, and extra work with trouble words.  I just read the list and have them spell orally until they miss one, then they write it.  That way I have a list of words they don’t know and we can go back and review them.

Several of my children were using homophones instead of the word they meant, so once a week we go over those as a group with a worksheet (there/their, its/it’s, you’re/your).  Those helped a lot just to review and have quizzes.  I get the worksheets from http://www.worksheetworks.com.

I asked my kids the other day what their favorite part of school was, and three of the 5 said their favorite was spelling!

I think dictation is more than spelling. It is also grammar and how to write well. And it is attentiveness.

Our difference may be in emphasis but I think it’s important. I don’t think the main purpose of dictation is spelling. I think CM had all its benefits in mind when she proscribed it. It is really more about the interaction with good  writing and the spelling and grammar and stylistic things are subpoints, no one is the main point. Having said which I can’t call to mind anywhere where she said this. Perhaps others know where CM discussed dictation?

Steps of a Dictation Lesson

Dictation lessons done the following way usually result in good spelling. A child of eight or nine studies a paragraph; older students study one page, or two or

vol 1 paraphrase pg 242

three pages. The students prepares for the lesson by himself. He looks at any word he isn’t sure of and tries to see it with his eyes closed. Before the dictation begins, the teacher asks him which words he thinks might give him trouble. He usually knows, and she can write them on the blackboard. She asks him to look until he has a picture of the word in his mind. Then she erases each word one by one. If he still isn’t sure about a particular word, she should have him attempt to write it on the blackboard from memory. She must watch closely so that, as soon as he begins to add the wrong letter, she can erase it before it lodges in his memory. When the word is on the board correctly, the student again tries to make a mental picture. Then the teacher dictates the passage, a phrase at a time, and only repeating once. She reads expressively enough to make punctuation evident, and students are expected to include correct punctuation. But she should not say, ‘comma,’ or ‘semi-colon.’ After students have spent maybe ten minutes preparing for the dictation as outlined, there are rarely any spelling mistakes. If there are any, the teacher would be wise to cover them with adhesive paper or white-out to erase the wrong spellings from the student’s mind as much as possible. At the end of the lesson, the child should study that word from his book until he’s sure he knows it. Then he should write the correctly spelled word on the adhesive paper, or over the white-out.

Children cooperate enthusiastically with this kind of lesson because they feel like they have a part in it. It also prepares them for the second thing necessary to be a good speller, which is lots of reading with a trained habit of making a mental image of words as they are read.

Bad spelling is usually a sign of not much reading,

This is from volume 1.

Dictation

Dictation, which reinforces spelling, is when the child writes something as the parent dictates. This is not for testing purposes – the child should be familiar with the passage or sentence being written. You can let them “study” for it first so that he knows how to spell the words. He might close his eyes and try to picture the passage accurately. He might practice words he’s unsure about spelling. Only when he feels he is ready does the dictation exercise begin. This makes it more likely that the child will spell words correctly the first time. Some children are natural spellers and seem to effortlessly absorb spelling from their copywork and reading. For other children, dictation can help polish spelling skills because the child will have to memorize how to spell the word before the dictation exercise begins. The parent then reads the passage slowly and clearly while the child writes it from memory. Some parents use dictation as a way to test their child’s spelling, using misspelled words as a spelling list. But caution should be used because once a child sees or writes a word incorrectly, that incorrect spelling is recorded in his memory. (Sand, rice, cornmeal, salt or shaving cream, which allows misspelled words to be wiped out immediately, is a fun way to practice writing for young children.)

A child does not start dictation until he has mastered handwriting from copywork experience. His first dictation exercise may be a single sentence. By 10 or 11 years of age, he might be able to do a few sentences. Older children might do a paragraph or two once a week.

By 10 to 12 years of age, some children, especially those who don’t learn visually or are dyslexic, will still be having trouble spelling and need extra help. Programs that AmblesideOnline members have used with success are Mary Pecci’s Super Speller and DesignAStudy’s Natural Speller. Sequential Spelling or the book “Seeing Stars” by Nanci Bell may be helpful for dyslexics. Spelling Workout, although popular and effective with some list members, does not follow CM’s philosophy. Spelling Power is also used with success by some list members, but none of the Advisory members have seen it to assess its compatibilty with Charlotte Mason’s methods.

This from one of AO’s FAQ pages.

Dictation Level: Grades 4–12

Focus: Spelling

Description: After the student feels comfortable studying and writing words from memory, he graduates to preparing the entire passage and writing it all at once as the teacher dictates it to him. He doesn’t have to memorize the passage, but he does need to study it ahead of time and make sure he knows how to spell every word in it. You can also encourage him to take note of the punctuation and capitalization before you dictate the passage phrase by phrase. For a detailed look at how to do a dictation lesson, watch this video on prepared dictation.

Other Benefits: Cultivates the habit of looking at how words are spelled as you read; reinforces correct punctuation and capitalization; sharpens listening comprehension; increases vocabulary through context; reinforces correct sentence structure; reinforces the habits of observation and attention

And this last piece from the SCM blog.

This is what I came up with doing a quick search on the matter.

Wings2fly-It’s not just spelling but the main focus is spelling as far as I can see. For instance, the main focus of reading living books for history is to develop one’s knowledge of history. Some other benefits would include being exposed to great writing, seeing correct grammar and word usage, developing one’s love for reading and reading comprehension, etc.

When I searched for dictation, it was always used in the context of spelling instruction as far as my limited search was able to go. Someone else may find more information.

This is the wonderful thing about CM methods! Traditional education often compartmentalizes various subjects but they are so integrated and organic in CM methods, that it’s sometimes hard to tell where one leaves off and another begins. CM language arts just flow so nicely, don’t they?

I think dictation was her main tool for teaching spelling but, as with everything else in a CM education, she had a far bigger picture in mind.  She was educating “a person” body, soul and mind and so many other things come into play.  Presenting everything in the context of great ideas, be it dictation, math, science or picture study, feeds the mind AND the soul like mere lists or factoids never can.