More on dictations

In case you don't spot the suggestions on dictations that Kat refers to in the next post, they are "hidden" in the comments to Kat's original post on dictations... (!)

It's one of the drawbacks to blogs -- you've probably got to read them more carefully than email (is that necessarily a bad thing?).

Another suggestion: simultaneous dictation
Another idea for dictations I remember from way back, I don't know where it came from...

You divide the class into 4 groups, with each group being approximately in one corner of the room. Then give each group a (shortist) text. What they have to do is dictate their text to the other groups, and have to take down what is dictated to them by the three other groups.

What makes it fun, is that they do this simulataneously -- so, like, you've got four people dictating at once.

It sounds like a recipe for chaos, doesn't it? But try it, and I think you'll find they police themselves into (relative) silence, and have to concentrate and listen really hard...!