What is the value of having 5 minutes of dictation in language arts in middle school?

Question

I use 5 minutes of my daily language arts (middle school) class time for dictation. I read aloud a short paragraph of some nature and then check the students' writing for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Do you feel this is a valuable and worthwhile activity, and why? Thank you.

Answer 1

I think it is a good idea to hope them with note taking. The skills of dictation and note taking are necessary skills they will need in college!!!

Answer 2

The brain processes information in different ways.  The old classes in eloquent speaking had the brain look for detail in character and expression in young people that also helped them form their own favorable character and expression. It also shows up any student who has dyslexia or other problems.

Answer 3

I think it's a great way to hit some of your students (but not all, since not all students are auditory learners).  To me, this is a great way to check your students' application of grammar and spelling lessons they've learned.  In fact, I think I'll steal your idea to use in my own class.  I've got kids who will study hard all week for a spelling test and ace it, only to misspell some of those same words a couple of weeks later when they use it in their own writing.  Your exercise puts what they've learned into a context.  I also think that just spending 5 minutes on it is great.  It's far better than drilling it into their heads (which doesn't usually work for most people).  Find ways to change it up, and you'll be reaching some of your students all of the time.

Answer 4

Yes!  As an experiment, I gave dictation to my high school French students once a week during the last school year.  Over time, their grammar, spelling and punctuation skills improved at a greater pace than my students' second language skills in previous years.  Their overall listening and comprehension skills also developed at a faster rate, and they began to enjoy some of the topics chose.  Dictation worked well as a vocabulary acquisition tool, and we had good discussions about some of the expressions used.  Some of my juniors told me that they felt the vocabulary learned boosted their ACT or SAT scores.  I plan to continue with dictation in the coming school year.