How to Teach a Phonics Lesson: Sentence Dictation

Carla Stanford: Now we are going to talk about phrase dictation. Phrase dictation is the part of dictation ... we have sounds and then we have words. And we take those words and we build phrases. And this is a time for kids to have the opportunity to take that pattern and really put it into context. So it's building a lot of automaticity. In the phrase work we very intentionally take our words we've used and then we build phrases with them so that kids get to have more practice with the same words, with the same patterns. And then we can take those phrases and we can put them into sentences. This work is a really great place for kids to also practice the conventions of sentence writing, which we'll talk about in just a minute. The way it works is you say the phrase as the teacher, they repeat the phrase, you can count the words, or you can scoop the phrase up, and then you turn your voice off and they have some work time to actually write.

And every word that is in the phrase has to be something that you've already taught. Trick words or red words or heart words, whatever you call them, can be included as long as you've already taught them for kids. And any other patterns that you've taught can also be included. So sometimes crafting these phrases can be a little tricky, but just always considering what you've already taught. So here's some that we can use if we've taught '-ck'. So if we use the word luck, I could say, "bad luck." That could be my phrase. So for my kids, I could say, "All right, get ready. It's my turn. The phrase is "bad luck," Repeat. "Bad luck." Okay, let's scoop it. "Bad luck." All right, write it." And a lot of times with our phrases, because our kids are having to hold more than one word, I immediately will turn my voice off and I'll use this motion that means write.

So I say, "bad luck." They say, "bad luck." We scoop "bad luck." And then I do this. And they can write. The checking can go several ways and you can make the decision. You're driving the bus here. You can immediately write and you can have it here and walk around and see how your kids are doing. You can not write it here. Walk around and see what your kids need help with and do a little teaching along with this. So in the word "bad," we may have some B-D issues, Because it has a 'b' and a 'd', it makes it really hard. And for luck, you're hoping that they get '-ck' hooray because they just use that word above. And so with our phrases, we can take them and then build a sentence. So if our phrase is "bad luck," I might say, "'The kid had bad luck.'

Repeat. 'The kid had bad luck.'" So I'm taking my phrase, "bad luck." And I'm now putting it into a sentence. I say the sentence, the kids repeat the sentence. We can count the words in the sentence. "The kid had bad luck." We can scoop. "The kid had bad luck." I would turn my voice off and I would give kids the opportunity to write. And in this part of dictation, they're really having to pull all of these cognitive processes together to become accurate, fluent writers. So quickly they will be writing. I can do the same thing where I write here, or I can walk around, watch them, and have them check with me where they give me the work. "Kid" is a word that could be hard for your kids where they have to make the decision 'c' versus 'k'. And just thinking through all the hard work they're going to have to do in your sentence is really important so you know where you may have to step in. So, "The kid had bad luck." So my students, my kids have written, "The kid had bad luck." And at this point, this is where I can layer in that work related to writing sentences where I really talk about, "Okay, you've written your sentence." And we like to use C.U.P.S., and this is how you could use it with your kids. You could say, "Okay, here's C.U.P.S. It helps us remember all the parts that we need to have in a sentence so we can communicate with others." So the first thing, the 'c' stands for capital letters. So you could say, "Check. Do you have capital letters?" I like to let my kids give themselves a smiley face. You could have them start it or check it. Next, understanding. "Read your sentence back everyone. Make sure it makes sense.

Can you understand it? 'The kid had bad luck.' Yes." If they didn't you teach them how to use a carrot and add in a word that they left out and you would have them check it off. So understanding. Yes, we did that. The 'p' stands for punctuation. And then the last thing is spelling. We would look through each word and make sure that we had spelled everything correctly. This will be tricky, the 'c' versus 'k'. And then making sure our 'b's and 'd's are the right direction and our 'ck' in luck. And they can check each thing that they did. And what happens in sentence dictation is if you use C.U.P.S. every single day when you are doing this work, you train your children. They can write this on this side of their paper and all they can just go through the checklist on their own.

So just like in the word section and in the sound section of dictation, you are always going to have our kids read back what they wrote because we want to practice this encoding where we're spelling and then this decoding where we're reading. And when you have multiple phrases and multiple sentences, this actually ends up serving as a really nice mini read sheet for your kids to read back everything that they've written and lots of nice practice. Dictation is magical. Sound dictation lets kids do the work. Really focusing on a sound and connecting it to its spelling. Word dictation lets kids take that sound, put it in a word, and have success. And they get to have productive struggle in your teaching and working with them on it. And then you move to phrases where you take those words, you put other words around them so kids get more practice, they get to build that stamina. And then you take those phrases and you put them in sentences, being very mindful of how you construct them so the learning is really coming together there at the end. And this is a really interactive part of the lesson where all the work is happening for the children. Pencil to paper, they are working the whole time.

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