egao_gakari Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 (edited) Is it to repeat the sentences exactly? In other words, to semi-memorize the passage? Or is it to demonstrate understanding of the sentences and copy them down in such a way that it is clear the meaning of the passage has been held in mind long enough to get it down on paper? In other words, is an approximation of the correct words OK with you, or do you repeat and repeat until they have the exact wording? (I've seen SWB's video with her son. I'm curious to hear others' perspectives.) In a similar vein, when your child does narration & dictation exercises, how much do you correct their grammar and style? If they word a sentence awkwardly, do you suggest alternatives? So far, I've been making my 4th grader get the exact wording, and I've been correcting narrations so they sound better. But I'm starting to wonder if getting the exact wording is the right goal, and if I'm giving her too much assistance on the narrations--"writing them for her." Edited January 25, 2017 by egao_gakari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forty-two Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 I do go for letter-perfect on dictations, but on narrations I just go for legit sentences. Sometimes I offer suggestions, but mostly I'm going for grammatically correct. I do think that fixing awkward wording and unclear sections is important - maybe you could let her write the narration mostly on her own as a rough draft, and then at some point go over it with her and help her improve things, at least on some narrations (maybe her favorites)? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 I expected (expected) perfect replication. The point of dictation is to practice holding thoughts in your head long enough to put them on the paper. It's to help keep those good ideas or points for a paper in your head long enough to write them down. I don't need my kids to practice ' sort of good enough' they are already good at that, lol. I want them to master the skill, and practice makes permanent, so that is our goal. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamaraby Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Word/letter perfect on dictations. When they're younger we work on narrations together and edit on the fly. When they're older, they write independently, we review/edit together. If they're stuck, we work together. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egao_gakari Posted January 25, 2017 Author Share Posted January 25, 2017 I do go for letter-perfect on dictations, but on narrations I just go for legit sentences. Thanks! I expected (expected) perfect replication. The point of dictation is to practice holding thoughts in your head long enough to put them on the paper. It's to help keep those good ideas or points for a paper in your head long enough to write them down. I don't need my kids to practice ' sort of good enough' they are already good at that, lol. I want them to master the skill, and practice makes permanent, so that is our goal. What I'm experiencing is that she is holding the thoughts in her head--she's just mentally re-wording them into her own idiom. For example, in a sentence about how animals survive in the winter, she'll transform "Some animals migrate; some stay and winter over" into "Some animals migrate; some stay until winter is over." (She does this in particular when the phrasing is unfamiliar to her.) Word/letter perfect on dictations. That seems to be the consensus! I'll stick with what I've been doing :thumbup1: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamaraby Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 What I'm experiencing is that she is holding the thoughts in her head--she's just mentally re-wording them into her own idiom. My kids do this too. They're holding the idea of the sentence, not the sentence. It does get easier with practice and there is value, imo, in that work and attention to the actual words in the sentence and not just the idea the listener thinks is behind the sentence. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 I think there is value in getting dictation right on, but I didn't always bother to correct synonymous words or phrases (multiple times). We would occasionally talk about the times when exact wording is really important vs. the times when an approximation is suitable. With narrations I was more likely to write their awkward sentence and then have them listen to it afterward and we would discuss how it could be improved. This also have opportunity to reinforce the fact that there will always be room for revision which is a concept some of us have struggled with here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollyhock Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 My goal is exact wording for dictations but there are occasions where I make exceptions. As for narrations, if I think a sentence sounds awkward (I run into this a lot with my 8yo), I try to make suggestions without actually spelling it out: "Ok, you can't use the word 'and' to start this sentence. What should we say instead?" That kind of thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Thanks! What I'm experiencing is that she is holding the thoughts in her head--she's just mentally re-wording them into her own idiom. For example, in a sentence about how animals survive in the winter, she'll transform "Some animals migrate; some stay and winter over" into "Some animals migrate; some stay until winter is over." (She does this in particular when the phrasing is unfamiliar to her.) That seems to be the consensus! I'll stick with what I've been doing :thumbup1: I'd correct this. It forces her to become comfortable and familiar with different phrases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaquitita Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 I do go for letter-perfect on dictations, but on narrations I just go for legit sentences. Sometimes I offer suggestions, but mostly I'm going for grammatically correct. This is what I do too. For the narrations, if it's worded awkwardly, having them read it out loud to you helps. Then they hear the weird places and fix themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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