Dictation lessons are the next level of copywork, and is like an all-in-one language arts curriculum. But in this case its a method, not a curriculum. It teaches spelling and lays the groundwork for grammar and writing. 

Here’s how it works: 

A child of eight or nine prepares a paragraph, older children 1-3  pages. The child prepares by himself, by looking at punctuation and the spelling of words 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. 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 only once. She dictates with a pause at the punctuation 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. I like to watch my son carefully and if he begins to misspell a word I immediately have him stop and look at the word so he writes it correctly. When you write a misseplled word it becomes harder to remember the correct spelling; it becomes ingrained in your mind. 

Notes on Spelling

“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.

Illiterate spelling is usually a sign of sparse reading; but, sometimes, of hasty reading without the habit of seeing the words that are skimmed over.

Spelling must not be lost sight of in the children’s other studies, though they should not be teased to spell. It is well to write a difficult proper name, for example, on the blackboard in the course of history or geography readings, rubbing the word out when the children say they can see it. The whole secret of spelling lies in the habit of visualising words from memory, and children must be trained to visualise in the course of their reading. They enjoy this way of learning to spell. (pg 243)

Where Do I Find Sentences and Paragraphs?

The best thing is for your child to pick sentences from poetry or literature they’re reading. As my son gets older he comes and tells me about the funny or powerful quotes he loves from his books, like Harry Potter, Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians, etc. However, in the early years my boys usually picked sentences based on how short they were… So I picked sentences and utilized Chat GPT to help me. 

Give it prompts like: 

“Give me a list of,” or “I need a list of  ______________ for my students to imitate” 

• beautifully crafted paragraphs (or sentences) 
• paragraphs that evoke emotion
• paint vivid imagery
• Descriptive sentences
• Well-written

Ask for chapter it is in, or for the paragraph that surrounds the quote.

Here are some examples of well-written sentences from classic literature:

1. From “Moby-Dick” by Herman Melville: “Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.”
2. From Little Women: “Don’t laugh at the spinsters, dear girls, for often very tender, tragic romances are hidden away in the hearts that beat so quietly under the sober gowns, and many silent sacrifices of youth, health, ambition, love itself, make the faded faces beautiful in God’s sight. Even the sad, sour sisters should be kindly dealt with, because they have missed the sweetest part of life, if for no other reason.”
3. From To Kill A Mockingbird: “Maycomb was a tired, old town, even in 1932 when I first knew it. Somehow, it was hotter then. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft tea cakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.”
4. From Tom Sawyer: “The moonlit night enveloped the town, casting a silvery glow over the sleepy streets.”

Goodreads is also a good source for quotes for dictation.

Variations on Dictation

These are some ways to spice up dictation lessons. I recommend employing these after a year or more of regular dictation lessons. These would be best for middle school and high school students.

Fix It!

Type up the sentences that your child dictating at an earlier lesson. Make spelling and grammatical errors. It is important that they were exposed to the sentence beforehand. Bring a proofreading marks for your child to reference while editing.

Here are some ideas:

• Spell a word wrong
• Change a comma to a period, or vice versa
• Leave out punctuation altogether
• Change the tense in random words
• Change the pronouns
• Switch two words

Imitate The Sentence

1. Invitation to notice: Have students read a sentence you provide or a sentence that they self-select. After private thought time, ask students to share with you anything they notice about the sentence: what they like, don’t like, parts of speech, figurative language — anything that stands out to them. 
2. Invitation to label: Ask students to circle, identify, and/or label something specific in the sentence that stands out to them. If an author uses a series of adjectives separated by commas, for instance, the student might label the part of speech (adjectives) and the punctuation (commas in a series). 
3. Invitation to revise: Talk with your students about how revision can take a great sentence and make it even better. Encourage them to think about how they might revise or change the sentence. This stage also empowers students to see themselves as experts, on the same “level” as published authors. 
4. Invitation to imitate: Ask students to write a sentence like the mentor sentence.  Imitation can be an excellent way for students to expand their repertoire of writing skills, especially if their mentor sentence was self-selected from an author whose writing they admire.

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