Daily Dictation Practice: Improving Student Writing

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This is part one in a series that draws from Deedee Will’s 2024 Winter Summit session, “Research, Review, and Refresh Writing Routines for 2024.”

In this series of articles, we’ll review Deedee’s essential routines to enhance writing instruction. This includes daily dictation practice, sentence exploration, student composing time, using mentor texts, and reflective conferences.

You can find detailed lesson plans and additional resources on Deedee’s blog, Mrs. Wills Kindergarten.

Understanding the “Why?” behind effective writing instruction.

Understanding the research behind writing instruction can help teachers like you better implement best practices. If someone tells you to do something without explaining why, you might revert to old practices. Understanding why something is important helps maintain new, more effective practices.

Research supports the need for effective writing instruction.

In 2011, an NAEP assessment revealed that only 27% of eighth and 12th graders are proficient in writing. It’s an alarming statistic. This problem only worsens for children whose parents didn't complete high school themselves.

Why is this so significant? Writing skills are important for more than just college-bound students. They’re also critical for countless occupations, including craftsmen, administrative assistants, and secretaries.

Poor writing skills can limit career advancement, which should concern educators.

The science of reading, which informs how students learn to read and write, underscores the relationship between these skills.

• Explicit instruction in both reading and writing helps cement knowledge in students’ brains.
• Teaching reading and writing together is vital since our brains are not naturally wired for these skills.
• This makes them a challenge, especially with commonly confused letters (e.g., ‘b’ and ‘d’, ‘I’ and ‘j’).

Effective instruction requires explicit, repetitive practice aimed at mastery rather than exposure. It’s important to consider working memory and executive function in writing instruction. Students often struggle with juggling multiple tasks, which can lead to errors.

Some students might need six to eight weeks to build mastery. Others will need far more than that. Experts suggest that certain students may need hundreds of exposures to master a particular skill.

The recommendation is to spend 60 minutes on literacy activities daily, including oral language, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Now that we’ve established the importance of writing, let’s look at daily dictation and how it improves student writing skills.

What’s daily dictation practice?

Daily dictation practice focuses on handwriting, writing fluency, spelling, punctuation, and letter spacing.

It provides consistent, structured practice that integrates multiple skills, aligns with research-based instruction, and offers immediate feedback. It also engages students and involves parents, promoting a comprehensive and collaborative approach to improving writing skills.

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Why is handwriting practice essential?

Research shows that the best way to improve handwriting is through practice. Five minutes or more of daily practice throughout kindergarten and first grade is the best way to build automaticity. (Automaticity is the ability to do things automatically without having to think too much about it.)

This approach differs from the “teach and catch” method, where teachers correct mistakes after they occur. Instead, consistent daily practice helps build mastery.

Second-grade teachers can help kids improve handwriting by providing daily instruction or small group practice sessions.

Likewise, a simple warmup is a great way to ensure students are learning to write letters versus drawing them.

Of course, with practice, effective written work and writing assignments are key. Give these activities a try with your students.

Activity: “Make It Neat”

“Make it Neat” has students practice a letter in class and then take it home to practice more with a crayon or marker. The next day, they can bring it back for feedback and encouragement (stickers are great for this). This builds muscle memory and fluency.

Be sure to include a note for parents that emphasizes the importance of the correct path of motion and speed during these writing tasks.

Activity: “Minute to Win It”

This activity involves students practicing a letter quickly and correctly within one minute. Each student may practice different letters, allowing personalized practice.

With this activity, your students will see how many letters they can write in 60 seconds. Emphasize neatly written letters as part of this exercise.

Remember: if each child is practicing a different letter, that’s totally fine. It’s an opportunity for individual students to practice the letters that are giving them the most trouble.

The goal is to make handwriting automatic. As always, students can take their practice sheets home for additional practice and feedback.

What are the main considerations for efficient handwriting practice?

Efficient handwriting involves minimal pencil lifts to increase fluency. Teaching the correct starting points and path of motion for each letter can reduce confusion, such as between ‘b’ and ‘d’.

For example, for the letter ‘a’, we would go around up and down, not the stick, or the ball and stick.

Same thing with the letter ‘d’. We go up, round, and down. And the letter ‘b’ would be down, up, and around.

Practicing similar path of motion letters together, like ‘h’, ‘m’, and ‘r’, can reinforce good writing habits.

Here are some other considerations

Transcription & Executive Function

For handwriting to become automatic, over-learning is necessary. This reduces the cognitive load on executive functions. To put it more simply, it helps students focus on the sounds and meanings rather than the mechanics. Combining handwriting practice with dictation can be very effective.

Dictation & Writing Practice

Dictation should be a regular activity in classrooms to build over time. For children needing more exposure, small group practice can be useful. Providing immediate feedback helps all students stay engaged and improves their skills.

Sound & Word Practice

Using sounds and word practice in dictation helps students connect sounds with letter formations. Immediate feedback through a document camera reinforces correct practices. This method keeps kids engaged and ensures continuous improvement.

Contextual Spelling

Embed spelling practice in your students' writing practice. The goal is automation.

Traditional spelling tests are ineffective. Teachers should use them to guide further instruction instead of grading. As it goes, regular, contextual practice helps reinforce spelling skills.

How do you help students improve writing fluency?

To improve writing fluency, explicit instruction in handwriting and spelling is necessary. While drafting, the emphasis on correct spelling and handwriting should be lower. This allows students to focus on content creation.

Writing fluency also improves through discussion, planning, and extensive writing practice. This ties into sentence exploration, something we’ll be covering in the next part of this series.

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Daily dictation practice is vital for developing strong writing skills.

Practicing handwriting, dictation, and spelling every day helps students write more easily and fluently, leading to success.

It’s important for students to understand sentence structure. In the next part of this series, we’ll cover sentence exploration. This will include strategies and activities to help students understand and construct sentences more effectively, further improving their writing.

Stay tuned for more insights and practical tips to support effective writing instruction in your classroom.

To view the sessions that inspired articles like this one, be sure to register for The Educator Summit.

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Read part two in this series: Sentence Exploration & Student Composing Time

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Meet the presenter: Deedee Wills

Deedee Wills is an educator with over two decades experience in the K-2 classroom setting. As a teacher, instructional coach, and staff developer, she works with school teachers all throughout the United States.

Her website, Mrs. Wills’ Kindergarten, offers valuable resources, lesson plans, and activities to help Kindergarten teachers enhance their teaching effectiveness and improve classroom environments.