Dictagloss

Dictagloss is an activity that works with many short texts/passages. I’ve used it over the years and it seems to motivate and “work” because there is a built in task — the task of reconstructing the original text.

1.Let students listen to you or a higher level student read a selected text or story. (don’t make it too long, depends on the level but I’d say no more than 3 min. listening).It might also even be a dialog.

2. Next, tell them to listen again. This time taking notes, drawing pictures or however they want to record the information. You might even give them a graphic organizer or chart to help categorize information.

3. The students get in groups and try to recreate the exact text from memory. After some trying, you might even reread the passage to help them.

4. Share each others passage and note the differences.

This activity is similar to Running Dictation - in that the students recreate a text.

This post was submitted by David.