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PAT Bank

Dictation Dash (6th grade and up)

Author:

Nicole Nodarse
Texas

Subject:

Reading/Writing

Objective:

Grammar and Spelling practice

Materials and Preparation:

  • White board or chalk board
  • Dry-erase markers or chalk
  • Paper and pen or pencil
  • Pre-selected sentences

Student Grouping:

Whole Class

The Play:

  • On the previous day, students will have written sentences using that week's vocabulary words. The teacher chooses the sentences to use for the dictation test, which will also be used for this game.
  • Two students will be randomly selected to come up to the board. The teacher will dictate a sentence and the two students will each write it on the board.
  • The first student to finish with no errors wins that round and will receive two bonus points on the test.
  • If there are errors, then the other student's sentence will be looked at. If there are no mistakes, then he/she wins the points
  • If both students' sentences have errors, then a name will be drawn to see if any of the other students wrote it correctly (the students at their seats will also write the sentence).
  • When a student is picked with an error-free sentence, he or she wins the round and can choose the next two players from the cup.

Scoring:

Students with correctly written sentences receive two bonus points on the test. Students can only win one time during the game.

Further Play:

An additional element to encourage 100% participation is to have students sitting in groups. If a student from a group wins a round, then the rest of the students in that group will receive one bonus point.

Example:

For homophones practice:

"I want to go to the store, too," Billy said.

Everything in the sentence must be correctly spelled and have correct grammar including the vocabulary words underlined. This makes it more of a challenge to win.

Comments or Variations:

You will want to choose someone to keep score and track bonus points so that everyone can get their bonus points for the test. Also, be sure to go over how to correctly write each sentence after each round so that all students can make corrections and understand how they should be written. They may then study them for the test later that week.