How to Use a Movie for Dictation Practice
Use a favorite scene from a well-loved film for writing dialog from dictation. You should have kids who are already skilled in copywork of dialog first.
Then, try it like this:
- Load the DVD, Blu-ray, or streaming platform.
- Cue it up for the dialog scene (no more than 2 characters, only back and forth 4-5 times).
- Go over basic punctuation conventions for dialog (remind kids how to use quotation marks, that periods and question marks go inside the quotes, that each new speaker starts on a new line, indented, etc.).
- Play the scene through.
- Then play it a bit at a time, pausing as your children write. Do this for as long as it takes.
- Finally, play the scene all the way through, while the child compares their work to what they hear, making adjustments.
You will be the one to correct the finished product, but do it alongside the child in conversation: “Good job here. I think you need an apostrophe for the possessive here. Oops! Changed speakers. What do you do? That’s right. Indent, new line.”
Have fun!
Top image by Francis Bijl (cc cropped, tinted, text added)
