Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Dictation

When it comes to spelling, I have had a very difficult time being consistent. There is part of me that  has a difficult time with Charlotte Mason's methods because I need everything spelled out very straight forward way.  (Yet I did not AT ALL enjoy using a "boxed" textbook curriculum our first two years) I have literally studied everything I can get my hand on about this gentle approach to learning. In the early years I would spend any time I had online searching and reading; plus reading books as well.  I love the whole concept of living books but it has taken me a couple of years to let go and really begin to let the living books do their job. I am by no means there. One day about a year and a half ago, I ordered Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschool Series and one other homeschool book. I am still working my way through and I have obviously not read the books consistently, or I should be finished and on a second or third read. Truth be told, I was not ready for this series when I ordered. Now I am reading through the books and gaining new understanding and perspective as I read. I am making notes(necessary for my learning style) and putting to practice some of what I am reading. Dictation has recently become a practice in our school. We still have a few kinks to work out but it has given our spelling a boost as I teach my son to see the words as he reads them.



Steps of a Dictation Lesson.––Dictation lessons, conducted in some such way as the following, usually result in good spelling. A child of eight or nine prepares a paragraph, older children a page, or two or three pages. The child prepares by himself, by looking at the word he is not sure of, and then seeing it with his eyes shut. Before he begins, the teacher asks what words he thinks will need his attention. He generally knows, but the teacher may point out any word likely to be a cause of stumbling. He lets his teacher know when he is ready. The teacher asks if there are any words he is not sure of. These she puts, one by one, on the blackboard, letting the child look till he has a picture, and then rubbing the word out. If anyone is still doubtful he should be called to put the word he is not sure of on the board, the teacher watching to rub out the word when a wrong letter begins to appear, and again helping the child to get a mental picture. Then the teacher gives out the dictation, clause by clause, each clause repeated once. She dictates with a view to the pointing, which the children are expected to put in as they write; but they must not be told 'comma,' 'semicolon,' etc. After the sort of preparation I have described, which takes ten minutes or less, there is rarely an error in spelling. If there be, it is well worth while for the teacher to be on the watch with slips of stamp-paper to put over the wrong word, that its image may be erased as far as possible. At the end of the lesson, the child should again study the wrong word in his book until he says he is sure of, and should write it correctly on the stamp-paper.


A lesson of this kind secures the hearty co-operation of children, who feel they take their due part in it; and it also prepares them for the second condition of good spelling, which is––much reading combined with the habit of imaging the words as they are read.


Volume 1 Home Education


Charlotte Mason



I just recently made New and improved nature journals, which are getting used without much prompting from me. Habits, read about in Home Education Volume 1, we are really working on habits right now.


I also started a nature journal blog for two reasons.




  1. We live in a really cool place and having a place to share that is really neat.



  2. It keeps me going with our nature study. (I am thoroughly amazed at God's creation and how even though it is our coldest month here we have had nature to view and study via our found ants and a cat tail that our son brought home from a snowmachine ride.)


1 comment:

  1. I too struggle with how to teach spelling. Up to now I've tried Abeka and Sequential Spelling, never getting very far with either. So far, I think just being aware of their spelling mistakes in their writing is really the best way. My oldest son amazes me sometimes what he can spell. I think you are so wise to step back and let the living books do their thing. We were going strong with them until Christmas and now we are floundering. We need to get back in the habit.

    Jenn

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