I’ve used a bit of ULW & SW book 1, but as I’m looking at the longer passages of book 2, I’m wondering…are students expected to write the entire passage? Some of those are very long and I think it would be a huge struggle for my ds11. He always struggled with writing (the actual printing and cursive, which I think has carried over into his balking at composition). He writes all his letters as capitals, says it’s easier. Can he type his dictation?
We set a timer for what my student is comfortable with (each has been different at different times) and I dictate for the allotted time. If we did not get to knew words that I knew were practiced and I did not want to miss, after the time ran out I would dictate those few words at the end. Often it was just 2 or 3 words.
Not sure if that was “right” but it worked for us 🙂
From what I have read there is a strong connection with learning to spell and physically writing the word vs. typing, but if your student has struggles with physically writing that might change things.
As far as print vs cursive, I let them write how they are most comfortable. They all know cursive and how to read it, but so far my older son prefers cursive but my daughter and younger son prefer to print.
I know many that prefer to print in all caps, it always looks so nice and readable.
That is helpful. He doesn’t like to do any kind of writing, whether it be printing or cursive. Lol. He always fusses and complains when he has to write anything. He didn’t really like to learn typing either when we started that. He said it was confusing to know which finger to use for which letter. I’ve been wondering if he is dysgraphic. He writes all caps but they are very large with hardly any spaces between words. Or maybe slightly dyslexic. But he is a good reader and speller. (His older brother is dyslexic.)
We recommend for a 5th grader (exercises 1–70), that the student should study the entire passage but that you dictate two or three sentences. For a 6th grader (exercises 71–140), the student should study the entire passage but you would dictate three or four sentences.
You can adjust the amount your student studies according to your child’s abilities. If it would be too overwhelming for your child to study the entire passage, you could assign only the sentences that you will be dictating.
He may type his dictation if that is what works best for him. Just make sure to turn autocorrect off and make the font size large enough that you can read it over his shoulder as you dictate.