By the time children enter key stage one, they’ve typically begun their writing journey. But for many, transcription skills – the ability to move oral language into written language – are still far from automatic.
In fact, for most young writers, handwriting and spelling continue to demand a great deal of cognitive effort. As our Improving Literacy in key stage one guidance highlights, “if children have to concentrate to ensure their handwriting and spelling is accurate, they will be less able to think about the content of their writing.”
That’s why in years one and two, we can continue to emphasise building transcription fluency through explicit teaching and regular practise.
In this ‘Clip from the Classroom’ Holly Ashton, Vice Principal of the Greetland Academy, (Great Heights Academy Trust), reflects that:
The role of sentence dictation
Dictation can take different forms, but in the clip, the teacher dictates a carefully selected sentence to a group of year one children in the following way:
- The teacher begins by saying and repeating the whole sentence.
- The children repeat the sentence several times and count the words in the sentence.
- The whole sentence is written ‘live’ by the teacher as she thinks aloud and explicitly models each stage.
- The children join in with the process of segmenting and re-reading.
- Once the sentence is complete, it is hidden and the children write the sentence themselves, with the teacher circulating to monitor progress and offer immediate feedback.
It’s important to note that the sentence has been planned to only include the phonics knowledge the children have been taught and therefore can apply.
We are reminded that dictation is not an assessment or test. It provides a chance for an adult to model many writing behaviours including handwriting, matching sounds to letters to spell words, and sentence formation. We can see that dictation allows the pupils to rehearse and embed transcription skills in a controlled context. It helps them write more automatically – thereby reducing cognitive load.
By embedding routines to build fluent transcription, we ensure that every child develops the fluency and confidence they need to become independent writers.
If you want to find out more about developing transcription skills in your classroom, why not check out these blogs from the EEF and Research Schools Network to find out more:
- How the ‘Simple View of Writing’ can help you develop your pupils’ fluency in writing, EEF blog
- Turning corners in writing, Town End Research School
- How one school is rewriting their writing curriculum, Great Heights Research School