Sound-Letter Dictation with Kindergartners

Monica Peevyhouse: Boys and girls, we're going to work on dictation. I want you to put everything away.

Student: I love that!

Monica Peevyhouse: I know. And get out your pencil. I'm going to have you say a sound, and then I'm going to have you write the letter that spells the sound. Everybody say /f/. What letter spells …?

Students: ‘F’!

Monica Peevyhouse: Very good.

Student: Lowercase or uppercase?

Monica Peevyhouse: We're going to write lowercase … lowercase when we do dictation. We're going to start in the middle of the fence line and the skyline. We're going to go up towards the sky, then curve down to the ground, and we're going to cross at the fence. I want you to move to the second line. And we'll write some more sounds. Everybody say /h/.

Students: /h/.

Monica Peevyhouse: Here we go. I start high in the sky, all the way to the ground. Trace back up.

Everybody say /ŏ/.

Students: /ŏ/.

Monica Peevyhouse: How do we spell /ŏ/?

Students: ‘O'!

Monica Peevyhouse: With an 'o’. Make sure you give yourself a little space. Everybody, I want you to say the sound /a/.

Students: /a/.

Monica Peevyhouse: How do we spell /a/?

Students: ‘A’!

Monica Peevyhouse: With an 'a’. Make sure we give ourselves a little space. Everybody say the sound /m/.

Students: /m/.

Monica Peevyhouse: How do we spell /m/?

Students: ‘M’!

Monica Peevyhouse: With an 'm’. Let's write 'm'. Can we try that one more time? Okay. We have to make sure that we keep our curves underneath the fence line. I want you to start right there. So come straight down to the ground and trace back up. Curve under that fence line. Okay. Trace back up and curve under the fence line. Very good, sister. Good job. Hey, everybody say /t/.

Students: /t/.

Monica Peevyhouse: How do we spell /t/?

Student: ‘T’.

Monica Peevyhouse: With a 't’? Very good. Will you write the letter 't'? Make sure we give ourselves some space. Okay, everybody, you did such a great job. Give your brain a kiss.

Monica Peevyhouse: Say "Love you, brain. Love you, brain.”

Students: Love you, brain! 

Narrator: For more information, please visit ReadingUniverse.org. Special thanks to Prather-Brown Center, Frederick Public Schools, and the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and two anonymous donors. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington D.C., the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.

Monica Peevyhouse: I'm Monica Peevyhouse, and this is Reading Universe.