Running and laughter abounded—as well as dictation for grammar, spelling, and vocabulary! I call it sentence relay. (Sounds so much more fun than the "d" word--"dictation"--and it is!)Two weeks ago I wrote about one easy exercise for paying attention to language. Here’s another. This one adds collaboration and movement—one 8th grader was actually breathing hard! Larry Ferlazzo, to whom I'm indebted for the idea, calls it running dictation or messenger-and-scribe.
I posted 4 different sentences in different places around the room (small type, lying down in the chalk tray, or with a flap folded over to prevent thwart prying eyes from across the classroom). Students paired up, and for the first sentence, one had the job of going to a sentence, reading it, returning to the partner, and dictating it from memory. The partner staying in place took the dictation. The runner could make as many trips as necessary to check wording, spelling, grammar, and punctuation, but she had to return to her partner to deliver the findings—she couldn’t shout across the room while looking at the sentence—and she couldn’t carry the paper over to the posted sentence for comparison. When a partnership thought they had the first sentence done perfectly, they swapped roles for the second sentence—then back and forth again for sentences three and four.
Two teams finished nearly at the same time, and when I checked the sentences over, both had 6 errors. I told them how many in each sentence, and they were disappointed, but eager to find out what the errors were, groaning when they discovered them—spelling, plurals, missed punctuation, subject-verb agreement.
The sentences I chose were ones from our reading that contained vocabulary words that would be on the quiz the next day, so the activity was a two-for—both vocabulary review and dictation. Actually, it was a four-for—vocabulary review, dictation, a wake-me-up-and-get-the-blood-flowing, and conversation practice, and the questions and directions (How do you spell this word? You have to put a comma after…) all had to be in English.
Actually, I chose 5 sentences, and the shortest one I used to model the task with me as the runner and an advanced student as the scribe. I modeled the back-and-forth, and I modeled how to graciously give corrections.
Two teams finished nearly at the same time, and when I checked the sentences over, both had 6 errors. I told them how many in each sentence, and they were disappointed, but eager to find out what the errors were, groaning when they discovered them—spelling, plurals, missed punctuation, subject-verb agreement.
The sentences I chose were ones from our reading that contained vocabulary words that would be on the quiz the next day, so the activity was a two-for—both vocabulary review and dictation. Actually, it was a four-for—vocabulary review, dictation, a wake-me-up-and-get-the-blood-flowing, and conversation practice, and the questions and directions (How do you spell this word? You have to put a comma after…) all had to be in English.
Actually, I chose 5 sentences, and the shortest one I used to model the task with me as the runner and an advanced student as the scribe. I modeled the back-and-forth, and I modeled how to graciously give corrections.
Energizing, motivating, and effective: Whether I want to review a previous day's reading, a particular grammatical structure, or vocabulary words, this exercise is a great way to do it.
I’m always on the hunt for games and activities, and The ELL Teacher’s Toolbox has been a fantastic resource. I also had great success with free games I’d gotten over the summer from the website Teach This. I found them so helpful that last week I sprang for the paid level access, and I’m loving it. Highly recommended—and so much more than games is available!
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