Running dictation is a game that is usually used for grammar points. (And in fact, I've included it before in my list of Activities That Can Be Used for Any Grammar Point). But it can also be used for Reading Texts.
First of all, I should probably review the basics of running dictation before I describe how it can be used with reading texts.
In running dictation, the students are put into pairs. The teachers places a sheet with some English sentences either at the front of the room, or outside of the room. (I usually prefer to place it outside the classroom in the hallway somewhere, but it all depends on the size of your classroom, how much freedom you have to use the outside hallways, and how much you trust your students to be relatively well-behaved in the school hallways). One student can run and look at the sentences, but they can't write down anything. They must memorize as much as they can, and then run back and dictate the sentences to their partner. Their partner, by contrast, is allowed to write, but cannot leave their seat to look at the sentences themselves. They must simply listen to their partner, and write down what their partner dictates. (In my experience, constant vigilance is required to ensure that the rules are actually followed.) The "runner" holds as much of the text in their memory as they can, runs back and tells their partner what they can remember, and then has to run back to the text to look again and memorize the next section.
The game continues until one pair has successfully reconstructed all the sentences.
This game is popular in ESL classrooms because it's a good way to wake the students up and get them active. (Or, alternatively, with some classes it's a good way to utilize any restless energy that the students may have.) But it also supposedly has a pedagogical purpose. Because the students are forced to hold the sentences in their memory while they run back and forth, supposedly their is a greater chance that the target grammar structure will get imprinted in their brains and go from input to intake.
See an example of a grammar running dictation here.
With reading texts, there is no target grammar structure. But running dictation can still be used as a way to focus attention on the text. This can be useful for classes in which the students are not actually motivated to do the reading, and some external motivation is required to get the students to focus on the reading (e.g. teenagers who are in an English class because they are required to be there, and not because they want to be there.)
Of course, for a longer reading text, the students can't be expected to recreate the whole text. But you can delete 5-10 sentences from a text, and have the students do running dictation for the missing sentences.
For an example of this, see this worksheet here.
I've also been experimenting with more complicated running dictations for reading.
One activity I've used is that I delete a sentence from each paragraph, but I don't tell students which sentence has been deleted. Students are then encouraged to read the paragraph closely, and find the spot where their is a coherence problem in the paragraph--that is, find where two sentences do not connect to each other, and there must be a missing sentence. The full text is posted outside the classroom, and one student can run outside the classroom to look at it, and compare the full version with the version that they were given. However, as the students can take nothing outside the room with them, this all must be done by memory.
For an example of that version, see this worksheet here.
Directions: Tell students to close their books. Put them in pairs. Give each pair a copy of pages 1-2. Instruct them that there is one sentence missing from each paragraph. They have to read the paragraph and use the cohesion clues to tell where sentences are probably missing. They mark the spot in the paragraph where they think the sentence is missing.Then, give each pair a copy of sheet 3. Instruct them that the full text is posted outside the room (p.4-5). They have to go outside of the room, look at the full paragraphs, and find the missing sentence, and then write it down on their answer sheet. Standard running dictation rules apply (i.e. one student can run outside to look at the text, but they can't write anything. They have to memorize the sentence, and run back and dictate it to their partner). The first pair to write down all 9 missing sentences is the winner.
Another example of Running Dictation comes from a website I linked to previously: 21 Must-Use Reading Activities For Your Language Lessons: Fun Pre-Reading and Post-Reading Activities for All Language Classrooms. In that version, it looks like each group is responsible for reconstructing one paragraph from the reading:
This works better with shorter texts or splitting a whole text into paragraphs, which each team is responsible for. Put enough copies of the texts up outside the classroom with a number on each. Assign each team a number. Advise the aim is for students to be the first team to communicate the text from their corresponding paragraph outside the classroom, without cheating. Students must take it in turns to read a sentence in sequence from their paragraph, and be the first team to finish communicating and writing the paragraph down on a sheet of paper.
See the full description at number 14 on the website HERE.
No comments:
Post a Comment